... Rate Spread on Corporate Bonds 265Explaining the Rate Spreadon Corporate BondsEDWIN J. ELTON, MARTIN J. GRUBER, DEEPAK AGRAWAL,and CHRISTOPHER MANN*ABSTRACTThe purpose of this article is ... analyses assume that the risk premium is zero in the cor-porate bond market.1* Edwin J. Elton and Martin J. Gruber are Nomura Professors of Finance, Stern School ofBusiness, New York University. ... 1985, A theory of the term structure of interestrates, Econometrica 53, 385–408.Cumby, Bob, and Martin Evans, 1995, The term structure of credit risk: Estimates and speci-fication tests, NYU...