Graduation Year
Spring 2013
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Economics
Reader 1
Mitch Warachka
Rights Information
© 2013 Zachary Doran
Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between presidential elections and sovereign credit default swap (CDS) returns, as well as, equity returns in the Latin American countries, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. In particular, this paper tests whether or not presidential elections, which potentially represent political uncertainty and risk, affect sovereign CDS returns. I also analyze stock returns during the elections of each country to establish benchmarks that I compare to the CDS returns. Specifically, I evaluate the movement of CDS and equity adjusted returns (i.e. returns measured as deviations from average returns) over 7 presidential elections from 2005 to 2011. The baseline panel regression did not find statistical significance in the dummy election coefficients, but did find significance in the equity intercept coefficient at the 10 percent level. This result suggests that, on average, adjusted equity returns were higher during election periods than adjusted equity returns outside of election periods. I discuss the implications of these results later in the paper.
Recommended Citation
Doran, Zachary, "Pricing Political Risk in Latin America: A Look inside Presidential Elections, Sovereign Credit Default Swaps and Equity Prices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico" (2013). CMC Senior Theses. 627.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/627
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
