Three Essays On Liquidity In The Fixed Income Markets

The three essays can be regarded as studies on the basis risk of fixed income securities. They investigate the spreads among different bonds. The first essay, Market Risk and Credit Risk in a General Equilibrium Model, assumes perfect liquidity and focuses on the credit spread. By incorporating credit risk into the standard asset pricing models, it provides one of the first studies on how credit spread relates to market risk, including equity risk, interest risk, and inflation risk. The second essay, Illiquidity and Expected Return of Treasury Securities, focuses on Treasury bonds with zero default risk. The yield spreads among the bonds are solely due to liquidity difference. We derive, quantitatively, how this spread is related to the bid-ask spread, brokerage fee, bond maturity, and investors? expected holding period. It is one of the first theoretical models on the liquidity of treasury securities. The third essay, An Indirect Estimation of the Transaction Costs of Corporate Bonds, is an empirical estimation of the transaction costs of corporate bonds. It is observed that bonds with less liquidity tend to be the ones with lower credit rating quality. Liquidity risk and credit risk are thus intertwined. We are able to separate their effects and obtain estimates for liquidity spreads and credit spreads. In summary, the first essay studies credit risk; the second studies liquidity risk, and the third, as an empirical study, investigates both issues. They jointly contribute to the understanding of the basis risk of fixed income securities.