Market reports in the summer of 2016 suggest that Venezuela is on the brink of default on upwards of $65 billion in debt. That debt comprises of bonds issued directly by the sovereign and those issued by the state-owned oil company PDVSA. Based on the bond contracts and other legal factors, it is not clear which of these two categories of bonds would fare better in the event of a restructuring. However, market observers are convinced — and we agree — that legal and contractual differences would likely impact the payouts on the bonds if Venezuela defaults. Using a comparison of recent weekly yields for roughly similar PDVSA and pure sovereign bonds, we attempt to gain some insights into the value investors assign to the legal differences between these two categories of bonds.

中文翻译：

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PDVSA债券价格之谜

2016 年夏季的市场报告显示，委内瑞拉因超过 650 亿美元的债务处于违约边缘。该债务包括主权国家直接发行的债券和国有石油公司 PDVSA 发行的债券。基于债券合同和其他法律因素，目前尚不清楚这两种债券中哪一种在重组时表现更好。然而，市场观察人士确信——我们也同意——如果委内瑞拉违约，法律和合同差异可能会影响债券的支付。通过比较大致相似的 PDVSA 和纯主权债券的最近每周收益率，我们试图深入了解价值投资者分配给这两种债券之间的法律差异的价值。