Valuing Credit Default Swaps II: Modeling Default Correlations

by John Hull of the University of Toronto, and
Alan White of the University of Toronto

April 2000

Abstract: This paper extends the analysis in Valuing Credit Default Swaps I: No Counterparty Default Risk to provide a methodology for valuing credit default swaps that takes account of counterparty default risk and allows the payoff to be contingent on defaults by multiple reference entities. It develops a model of default correlations between different corporate or sovereign entities. The model is applied to the valuation of vanilla credit default swaps when the seller may default and to the valuation of basket credit default swaps.

Published in: Journal of Derivatives, Vol. 8, No. 3, (Spring 2001), pp. 12-22.

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