Catastrophe bond market is set for strong growth

Significance As an alternative source of capital to traditional reinsurance, catastrophe (cat) bond issuance, a securitised type of insurance against catastrophe-linked losses, is reaching new highs. In the current low interest rate environment, there has been strong investor demand for these bonds. Impacts As natural disasters increase, the chance of a catastrophe occurring in these bonds' three-to-five-year lifespan rises, weighing on returns. If the number of natural disasters with a global impact rises, cat bond returns may become more correlated with other asset classes. More catastrophe bonds that meet ESG criteria are likely to be issued.

What Do We Know About Corporate Bond Returns?

Recently, there has been a fast-growing literature on the determinants of corporate bond returns, in particular, the driving force of cross-sectional return variation. In this review, we first survey recent empirical studies on this important topic. We discuss cross-sectional evidence as well as time-series evidence. We then present a model-based analysis of individual corporate bond returns using the structural approach for credit risk modeling. We show, among other things, that the expected corporate bond return implied by the Merton model predicts 1-month-ahead corporate bond returns in the cross section. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Financial Economics, Volume 13 is November 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Unspanned Global Macro Risks in Bond Returns

We examine the macro-spanning hypothesis for bond returns in international markets. Based on a large panel of real-time macroeconomic variables that are not subject to revisions, we find that global macro factors have predictive power for bond returns unspanned by yield factors. Furthermore, we estimate macro-finance term structure models with the unspanned global macro factors and find that the global macro factors influence the market prices of level and slope risks and induce comovements in forward term premia in global bond markets. This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, finance.

TWO STAGE DECUMULATION STRATEGIES FOR DC PLAN INVESTORS

Optimal stochastic control methods are used to examine decumulation strategies for a defined contribution (DC) plan retiree. An initial investment horizon of 15 years is considered, since the retiree will attain this age with high probability. The objective function reward measure is the expected sum of the withdrawals. The objective function tail risk measure is the expected linear shortfall with respect to a desired lower bound for wealth at 15 years. The lower bound wealth level is the amount which is required to fund a lifelong annuity 15 years after retirement, which generates the required minimum cash flows. This ameliorates longevity risk. The controls are the withdrawal amount each year, and the asset allocation strategy. Maximum and minimum withdrawal amounts are specified. Specifying a short initial decumulation horizon, results in the optimal strategy achieving: (i) median withdrawals at the maximum rate within 2–3 years of retirement (ii) terminal wealth larger than the desired lower bound at 15 years, with greater than [Formula: see text] probability and (iii) median terminal wealth at 15 years considerably larger than the desired lower bound. The controls are computed using a parametric model of historical stock and bond returns, and then tested in bootstrap resampled simulations using historical data. At the 15 year investment horizon, the retiree has the option of (i) continuing to self-manage the decumulation policy or (ii) purchasing an annuity.