The Global Credit Cycle

Abstract

Do global credit conditions affect local credit and business cycles? Using a large cross-section of equity and corporate bond market returns around the world, we construct a novel global credit factor and a global risk factor that jointly price the international equity and bond cross-section. We uncover a global credit cycle in risky asset returns, which is distinct from the global risk cycle. We document that the global credit cycle in asset returns translates into a global credit cycle in credit quantities, with a tightening in global credit conditions predicting extreme capital flow episodes and declines in the stock of country-level private debt. Furthermore, global credit conditions predict the mean and left tail of real GDP growth outcomes at the country level. Thus, the global pricing of corporate credit is a fundamental factor in driving local credit conditions and real outcomes.