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This study examines the effect of the informational content of local credit rating announcements in emerging markets on the liquidity of their bond markets. This study analyses the liquidity of bonds in various emerging bond markets using a sample of nine countries: Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Hong Kong and Greece. The sample includes daily data on sovereign bonds that go from July 2009 to July 2017. The main focus is on the period before and after the sovereign debt crisis. This study notes that the bond liquidity is affected due to the sign of the rating granted by the rating agencies for each country.

This study aims to question the sources of liquidity problem of sovereign bonds issued by the emerging countries. The study’s database consists of daily data of all nine emerging countries for the period from July 2009 to July 2017. Panel data were collected from the Datastream database.

This study first directly tests the information content of bond ratings announcements and their effect on bond market liquidity. Next, the impact of rating changes on sovereign bond liquidity around the rating announcements is studied. Rating changes can affect sovereign bond's price, trading and liquidity around the announcement date. In particular the rating changes that move the bonds out of the investment grade category can elicit selling pressure or even fire sale of the fallen angels.

This research aims to present data on the prices of sovereign bonds that react to changes in credit rating by studying the price movements around the announcement of changes in credit rating. The literature is very rich in studies on credit rating changes on stocks and corporate bonds, but this study is perhaps the first attempt on sovereign bonds.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the effect of real credit ratings change on capital structure decisions.

The study uses three models to examine the impact of credit rating on capital structure decisions within the framework of credit rating-capital structure hypotheses (broad rating, notch rating and investment or speculative grade). These hypotheses are tested by multiple linear regression models.

The results demonstrate that firms issue less net debt relative to equity post a change in the broad credit ratings level (e.g. a change from A- to BBB+). The findings also show that firms are less concerned by notch ratings change as long the firms remain the same broad credit rating level. Moreover, the paper indicates that firms issue less net debt relative to equity after an upgrade to investment grade.

The study covers the periods of 2009 to 2016; therefore, the research result may be affected by the period specific events such as the European debt crisis. Moreover, studying listed non-financial firms only in the Tadawul Stock Exchange has resulted in small sample which may not be adequate enough to reach concrete generalization. Despite the close proximity between the GCC countries, there could be jurisdictional difference due to country specific regulations, policies or financial development. Therefore, it will be interesting to conduct a cross country study on the GCC to see if the conclusions can be generalized to the region.

The paper contributes to the literature by testing previous researches on new context (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA) which lack sophisticated comparable studies to the one conducted on other regions of the world. The results highlight the importance of credit ratings for the decision makers who are required to make essential decisions in areas such as financing, structuring or operating firms and regulating markets. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind that has been applied on the GCC region.

This paper aims to identify if there is an impact of the rating announcements issued by the agencies on the returns of the stocks of Brazilian companies listed on Brasil Bolsa Balcão, from August 2002 to August 2018, identifying which types of announcement (upgrade, downgrade or the same initial classification) cause variations in prices around the date of disclosure of the rating.

The event study methodology was applied to verify the market reaction around the announcement dates in a 21-day event window (−10, +10). The market model was used to calculate the abnormal returns (ARs), and subsequently, the accumulated ARs.

The hypotheses tests allowed to verify that the accumulated ARs are different, before and after the three types of rating announcements (upgrades, downgrades and the same classification); in upgrades, the mean of accumulated ARs increases in the days before the event, while in downgrades, this increase occurs after the event. This paper concluded that the rating announcements have an impact on the return of stock of the Brazilian market and that the market reaction occurs most of the time before the event happens, which indicates that the market can anticipate the information contained in the changes in credit ratings.

The results have considerable implications for portfolio managers, institutional investors and traders. It facilitates investment decision-making in the face of rating classification announcements. Market participants can pay more attention to their investment strategies and asset allocation during periods of risk rating announcements. Additionally, traders can understand the form of investment strategy for superior earnings.

The importance of the study is related to the fact that the results may explain the causes of specific movements in the Brazilian financial market related to a source of information that may or may not be able to influence the decisions of the financial agents that operate in this market. The justification is centred on the idea that, for investors who somehow react to the announcements, it is relevant to understand the impact of rating classifications on companies, as access to such information allows for more conscious decision-making.

The credit ratings issued by the Big 3 ratings agencies are inaccurate and slow to respond to market changes. This paper aims to develop a rigorous, transparent and robust credit assessment and rating scheme for sovereigns.

This paper develops a regression-based model using credit default swap (CDS) data, and data on financial and macroeconomic variables to estimate sovereign CDS spreads. Using these spreads, the default probabilities of sovereigns can be estimated. The new ratings scheme is then used in conjunction with these default probabilities to assign credit ratings to sovereigns.

The developed model accurately estimates CDS spreads (based on RMSE values). Credit ratings issued retrospectively using the new scheme reflect reality better.

This paper reveals that both macroeconomic and financial factors affect both systemic and idiosyncratic risks for sovereigns.

The developed credit assessment and ratings scheme can be used to evaluate the creditworthiness of sovereigns and subsequently assign robust credit ratings.

The transparency and rigor of the new scheme will result in better and trustworthy indications of a sovereign’s financial health. Investors and monetary authorities can make better informed decisions. The episodes that occurred during the debt crisis could be avoided.

This paper uses both financial and macroeconomic data to estimate CDS spreads and demonstrates that both financial and macroeconomic factors affect sovereign systemic and idiosyncratic risk. The proposed credit assessment and ratings schemes could supplement or potentially replace the credit ratings issued by the Big 3 ratings agencies.

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the relationship between patent applications and long-term risk for small firms across the global financial crisis of 2008. During a crisis, firm risk often skyrockets, and small and medium enterprises face significant dangers to their business continuity. However, managers have a set of strategies that could be implemented to increase a firm’s resilience, sustaining competitive advantages and improving access to financial resource. The authors focused on the investigating the impact of patenting activities on small business risk in a time of crisis.

This is a quantitative study based on a sample of Italian firms that applied for a patent in 2005. The changes in corporate credit ratings over a five-year period are related to different proxies of patent activity using multivariate regression analysis.

Firms that filed for a patent were more resilient, compared to the control sample, during the financial crisis. Innovative activities resulting in patent application seem to deliver strategic resources useful to tackle the crisis rather than increase riskiness. The moderating effect of patents on risk sensitivity is stronger for small firms and when the number of patents or the patent intensity is larger.

Limited evidence is available on how patent applications are related to risks for small firms during an economic crisis. The authors highlight that the innovative efforts resulting in patent applications can support small business resilience. The authors also point out that the implementation of patent information in small firms' credit score modeling is still an uncommon practice, while it is useful in estimating firm risk in a way more robust to exogenous credit shocks.

This paper investigates the effects of information asymmetry and Credit Rating Agency's reputation on bond yield spread, which is caused by the split bond rating of CRAs. For analysis, We do multivariate analysis, using bond rating and bond yield spread data in Korea from 2004 to 2015. The empirical results are as follows.

First, we examines whether information asymmetry affects the bond yield spread. using split rating data. As a result, the information asymmetry measured by split rating variable is significant, which supports the information asymmetry hypothesis. Additionally we can find bond yield spread is decided by negative credit grade rather than positive credit grade under split rating condition.

Next, we examines the relationship between the CRA’s reputation and the bond yield spread in case of split rating. Here, samples were divided into full samples and split rating samples. Summarizing the result, both samples are suggest similar result, the bond yield spread is changed depending on the specific CRA’s grading which having conservative rating tendency.

Thus, This result suggest information asymmetry caused by split rating and CRA’s reputation measured by CRA’s rating tendency affect bond yield spread in Korea

Credit relevance of financial reporting can be influenced by change in financial reporting framework. This study aims to examine the effect of mandatory international financial reporting standards (IFRS) adoption on credit relevance quality of financial reporting of deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria.

This study uses difference-in-differences (D-in-D) design for its modelling. Panel data regression analysis based on the D-in-D model is used in analysing the data collected from secondary sources.

The findings of this study are that based on the D-in-D approach, there is a significant and positive effect of mandatory IFRS adoption on credit relevance quality of financial reporting of DMBs in Nigeria, and that there is also a significant difference in the credit relevance quality of financial reporting of mandatory adopting banks in the post-mandatory IFRS adoption period compared to pre-mandatory IFRS adoption period.

To the best of this study's review, there is inadequacy of literature within the credit relevance research in Nigeria. In the light of this, this study intends to fill the gap.

This study is specifically important to regulatory authorities, both primary and secondary regulators. Specifically, this study has implications in the regulatory roles of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC). However, the study recommends that regulatory authorities should encourage DMBs to avail their financial reports annually to credit rating agencies (local and international) for proper evaluation for subsequent ratings.

The peculiarities in this study, that is the utilisation of the D-in-D design and the use of credit relevance metric as the dependent variable, made this study important and novel to push the frontier of existing knowledge.

This study investigates (1) whether democratization drives sovereign credit ratings (SCR) changes (the “democratic advantage”) or whether SCR changes affect democratization, (2) whether the degree of democratization in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries affects the associations and (3) whether the associations are significantly affected by resource dependence.

This study investigates the effects of SCR changes on democracy in 22 SSA countries over the period of 2000–2020 VEC Granger causality/block exogeneity Wald tests, and impulse responses and variance decomposition analyses with Cholesky ordering and Monte Carlo standard errors in a panel VECM framework.

The full sample impulse responses find that a SCR shock has a long-run detrimental effect on the democracy and political rights but only a short-run positive impact on civil liberties. Among the sub-samples, it is found that the extent of natural resource dependence does not affect the magnitude of SCR shocks on democratization mentioned above but it is found that a SCR shock affects long-run democracy in SSA countries that are relatively more democratic but is more likely to drive democratic deepening in less democratic SSA countries. The full sample variance decompositions further finds that the variance of SCR to a political rights shock outweighs the effects of all the macroeconomic factors, whereas in more diversified SSA countries, the variances of SCR are much greater for democracy and political rights shocks, which suggests that democratization and political rights in diversified SSA economies are severely affected by SCR changes. In the case of the high and low democracy sub-samples, it is found that the variance of SCR in the relatively higher democracy sub-sample is greater than in the low democracy sub-sample.

These results have three implications for democratization in SSA. First, the effect of a SCR change is not a democratically agnostic and impacts political rights to a greater extent than civil liberties. Second, SCR changes have the potential to spark a negative cycle in SSA countries whereby a downgrade leads to a deterioration in socio-political stability coupled with increased financial economic constraints that in turn drive further downgrades and macroeconomic hardship. Finally, SCR changes are potentially detrimental for democracy in more democratic SSA countries but democratically supportive in less democratic SSA countries. Thus, SSA countries that are relatively politically sophisticated are more exposed to the effects of SCR changes, whereas less politically sophisticated SSA countries can proactively shape their SCRs by undertaking political reforms.

This study is the first to examine the associations between SCR and democracy in SSA. This is critical literature for the Africa’s scholarly work given that the debate on unfair rating actions and claims of subjective rating methods is ongoing.

This paper aims to present an analysis of the role of financial incentives, moral hazard and conflicts of interests leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.

The study’s analysis has identified common structural flaws throughout the securitization food chain. These structural flaws include inappropriate incentives, the absence of punishment, moral hazard and conflicts of interest. This research sees the full impact of these structural flaws when considering their co-occurrence throughout the financial system. The authors address systemic defects in the securitization food chain and examine the inter-relationships among homeowners, mortgage originators, investment banks and investors. The authors also address the role of exogenous factors, including the SEC, AIG, the credit rating agencies, Congress, business academia and the business media.

The study argues that the lack of criminal prosecutions of key financial executives has been a key factor in creating moral hazard. Eight years after the Great Recession ended in the USA, the financial services industry continues to suffer from a crisis of trust with society.

An overwhelming majority of Americans, 89 per cent, believe that the federal government does a poor job of regulating the financial services industry (Puzzanghera, 2014). A study argues that the current corporate lobbying framework undermines societal expectations of political equality and consent (Alzola, 2013). The authors believe the Singapore model may be a useful starting point to restructure regulatory agencies so that they are more responsive to societal concerns and less responsive to special interests. Finally, the widespread perception is that the financial services sector, in particular, is ethically challenged (Ferguson, 2012); perhaps there would be some benefit from the implementation of ethical climate monitoring in firms that have been subject to deferred prosecution agreements for serious ethical violations (Arnaud, 2010).

The authors believe the paper makes a truly original contribution. They provide new insights via their analysis of the role of financial incentives, moral hazard and conflicts of interests leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.