Price Discovery in the Eurasian Credit Derivatives Markets
Authors:   Asia-Europe Perspective Association, Hahn Deokhee 
Published: June 2018

Credit derivatives has been the fastest growing segment of the global over-the-counter derivatives markets since credit derivatives birth in the early 1990s. A credit derivative refers to any one of various instruments and techniques designed to separate and then transfer the credit risk of the derlying loan. It is a securitized derivative whereby the credit risk is ransferred to an entity other than the lender. However, due to the complexity of credit derivatives moral hazard problems and information asymmetry issues may arise. Nevertheless the evolution of credit derivatives such as credit derivatives index increases the quality of price discovery and adds transparency to the credit markets. The price discovery mechanism is the process of determining the price of an asset in the marketplace through the interactions of available information including one market and other related markets. In adynamic market, the price discovery takes place continuously. The price will sometimes fall below the average and sometimes exceed the average as a result of the noise due to uncertainties. So usually price discovery accepted an important research topic in finance helps find the exact price for an asset. This paper empirically examine whether the Eurasian credit derivatives markets is properly performing its economic function of price discovery by analyzing the prices between the European credit derivatives market and the Asian credit derivatives, for the period from October 1, 2010 to April 18, 2012 using daily data. Specifically, the study addresses three issues: (1) the European credit derivatives market has predictive power for the Asian credit derivatives market or vise versa; (2) if a variable have predictive power, how long does the variable in response to the various shocks; (3) how big does the proportion of the movements in a sequence due to its own shocks impacts to the other variable. The analysis employs the vector-autoregression, Granger causality, impulse response function and variance decomposition using daily returns on both Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index and Markit iTraxx SovX Asia Pacific Index . Tools employed by VAR analysis-Granger causality, impulse response function and variance decomposition-can be helpful in understanding the interrelationships among economic vriables. Granger causality actually measures whether current and past values help to forecast future values. So, a variable y is said to be Granger-caused by other variable x if x helps in the prediction of y. A shock to the i-th variable not only directly affects the i-th variable but is also transmitted to all of the other endogenous variables through the dynamic (lag) structure of the VAR. An impulse response function traces the effect of a one-time shock to one of the innovations on current and future values of the endogenous variables. While impulse response functions trace the effects of a shock to one endogenous variable on to the other variables in the VAR, variance decomposition separates the variation in an endogenous variable into the component shocks to the VAR. Thus, the variance decomposition provides information about the relative importance of each random innovation in affecting the variables in the VAR. So, the variance decomposition tells us the proportion of the movements in a sequence due to its own shocks versus shocks to the other variable. The findings in this paper indicate that the Europe Index return has predictive power for the Asia Index return from Granger causality test. But the Asia Index return don't has predictive power for the Europe Index return. This results makes clear that there is a one-way relationship in which the European credit derivatives market affects the Asian credit derivatives market.