← Search

Journal of Finance Vol. 54 No. 6 1999

Call Options, Points, and Dominance Restrictions on Debt Contracts

Kenneth B. Dunn1; Chester S. Spatt2

1 Miller, Anderson, and Sherrerd, · 2 Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie-Mellon University

Abstract

We analyze the impact of a contract's length, callability, amortization, and original discount by arbitrage methods. Among instruments that are callable without penalty, longer instruments command a higher interest rate because the borrower possesses the option of repaying relatively more slowly. However, the rate on longer self‐amortizing loans cannot be substantially larger than for shorter ones because the payments decrease with contract length. Bounds on the trade‐off between points and rate for callable debt are characterized using the trade‐off for noncallable debt and the property that the value of the prepayment option increases with the loan's interest rate.

DOI
10.1111/0022-1082.00190
Volume
54
Issue
6
Pages
2317-2337
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

Cite