We offer a new model for pricing bonds subject to default risk. The event of default is remodeled as the first time that a state variable that captures the solvency of the issue goes below a certain level. The payoff to the bond in case of default is a constant fraction of the value of a security with the same promised payoffs but without the risk of default. We show that our model is very tractable under different models of interest rate risk and of the interaction between default risk and interest rate risk, with closed-form solutions for corporate bond prices in special cases. The model is seen to produce term structures of default yield spreads and forward spreads with more reasonable properties than other models that have recently been proposed. We illustrate the issue of our model by estimating its parameters and backing up both the default writedown and the state variable that governs default risk from a panel data set of bond prices issued by RJR Nabisco.

We price corporate debt from a structural model of firm default. We assume that the capital market brings about efficient firm default when the continuation value of the firm falls below the value it would have after bankruptcy restructuring. This characterization of default makes the model more tractable and parsimonious than the existing structural models. The model can be applied in conjunction with a broad range of default-free interest rate models to price corporate bonds. Closed-form corporate bond prices are derived for various parametric examples. The term structures of yield spreads and durations predicted by our model are consistent with the empirical literature. We illustrate the empirical performance of the model by pricing selected corporate bonds with varied credit ratings.