Staff Reports
The Global Credit Cycle
Number 1094
March 2024 Revised March 2026

JEL classification: F30, F44, G15, G12

Authors: Nina Boyarchenko and Leonardo Elias

We estimate the global price of credit risk from a large cross section of global corporate bond returns. We show that a single factor, constructed as a nonlinear function of past credit spreads, equity market volatility, and their interactions, prices bond returns in both the time series and the cross section. The factor significantly outperforms alternative measures of global financial conditions, explaining up to 13 percent of variation in bond-level three-month-ahead returns. A high global price of credit risk further translates into deteriorations in local credit conditions, outflows from global funds, and higher expected returns to global funds.

Full Article
Author Disclosure Statement(s)
Nina Boyarchenko
The author declares that (s)he has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.

Leonardo Elias
The author declares that (s)he has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.
Suggested Citation:
Boyarchenko, Nina and Leonardo Elias. 2024. “The Global Credit Cycle.” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 1094, revised March 2026. https://doi.org/10.59576/sr.1094

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