The "Gap-filling" Effect Of Corporate Bond Maturity Choice In China

In order to study the macroscopic relationship between corporate bond maturity and government bond maturity in China’s bond market,this paper extends the "gap-filling"theory of corporate bond maturity choice by introducing the factors of government background and credit environment,and draws the following conclusions.When the proportion of long-term government bond issuance becomes low,the issuing companies will adjust their term structure towards long-term corporate bonds.The weaker the government background,the better the credit environment,the more obvious the behavior.This paper uses the national quarterly time series data from January 2007 to June 2018,and the provincial panel data from July 2014 to June 2018 to empirically analyze the linkage between corporate bond maturity and government bond maturity in China’s bond market.The results are basically in line with the theoretical expectation.There is a nationally significant "gap filling" effect from the first quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2014.The government background has a restraining effect on "gap-filling" effect.However,the "gap filling" effect is significant only in the provinces with good credit conditions after the third quarter of 2014,indicating the positive effect of the credit environment on "gap-filling" effect,and the negative effect of the government background still exists.