Structural models of default risk price firm’s equity and debt as contingent claims written on the firm’s underlying assets. However, the empirical literature has detected that observed credit spreads, particularly for safer firms, tend to be on average above their structural models’ predictions (the credit spread puzzle). This paper investigates possible explanations for the credit spread puzz...

We demonstrate, using a simple two-period equilibrium model of the economy, the potential effects of extreme event occurrences such as natural or humanitarian disasters on economic growth over the mediumto long-term. In particular, we focus on the effect of such shocks on investment. We examine two polar cases; an unconstrained economy where agents have access to perfect capital markets, versus...

www.philadelphiafed.org R eports in the popular press and policymakers’ concerns about student loans have greatly intensified in recent years because of rising student loan balances and defaults. Even greater cause for concern arose as student loans outstanding passed credit card debt to become the single largest nonmortgage household debt in 2012. Worries about the risk of massive default have...

Many employers screen new hires by examining the credit reports of job applicants. The practice has sparked debate, with opponents asserting that it amounts to discrimination and proponents maintaining that it is an important tool for employers to assure the quality of new employees. To date, little evidence exists on the validity of credit status as a screening device. The issue is complicated...

One of the most important issues always facing banks and financial institutes is the issue of credit risk or the possibility of failure in the fulfillment of obligations by applicants who are receiving credit facilities. The considerable number of banks’ delayed loan payments all around the world shows the importance of this issue and the necessary consideration of this topic. Accordingly...

Much research has suggested that facial identification has some characteristics of automaticity, in that it is rapid, nonconscious, and mandatory. However, little research has tested whether it can occur even if attention is already devoted to the demanding central processes of another task. In the present study, we addressed this type of automaticity using the psychological refractory period p...

For d ≥ 2, we construct a doubling measure ν on Rd and a rectifiable curve Γ such that ν(Γ) > 0.

Two psychological refractory period (PRP) experiments were conducted to examine overlapping processing in younger and older adults. A shape discrimination task (triangle or rectangle) for Task 1 (T1) and a lexical-decision task (word or nonword) for Task 2 (T2) were used. PRP effects, response time for T2 increasing as stimulus onset synchrony (SOA) decreased, were obtained for both age groups....

Even though the (untwisted) Whitehead doubling operation kills all known abelian invariants of knots (and makes them topologically slice), we show that it does not kill the rational function that equals to the 2-loop part of the Kontsevich integral.