Regime Dependent Determinants of Credit Default Swap Spread Open Access

This study investigates the influence of theoretical determinants on the Korea sovereign CDS spreads from January 2007 to September 2009 based on structural credit risk model. For the analysis of determinants on the sovereign CDS spread, this study adopts interest swap rate as reference interest rate, and decomposes yields curve into two components, ie, interest level and slope. Considering multivariate regression in level and difference variables, Stock returns and Interest rates have a significant effect on the CDS spreads among the theoretical determinants of structural credit risk models. CDS spreads may behave quite differently during volatile regime compared with their behavior in tranquil regime. We therefore apply Markov switching model to investigate the possibility that the influence of theoretical determinants of CDS spread has a regime dependent behavior. In all regimes Korean sovereign CDS spreads are highly sensitive to stock market returns, whereas in tranquil regime interest rates also have influence on CDS spreads. We conclude that for the efficient hedging of CDS exposure trader should adjust equity hedge ratio to the relevant regime.