Publications

SSRN

January 2005 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Private Capital and Public Policy: Standard & Poor's Sovereign Credit Ratings

By: Rawi E. Abdelal and Christopher Bruner

Describes Standard & Poor's sovereign credit ratings business. Provides background on the history of credit ratings agencies, the meaning of credit ratings, the expansion of the sovereign ratings business over recent decades, and the market for credit ratings. Also,... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; History; Policy; Business and Government Relations; International Finance; Country; Globalized Economies and Regions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Capital Markets; Debates; Financial Services Industry; United States

Educators

22 Jul 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Reputation and Competition: Evidence from the Credit Rating Industry

Keywords: by Bo Becker & Todd Milbourn; Financial Services

13 Jun 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: A Startup Takes On the Credit Ratings Giants

Fons is about to propose a strategy to Kroll to launch KBRA. Along with Fons, an economist specializing in credit risk and rating agency issues, students are asked to consider... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Banking; Financial Services

January 2022
Article

Why is Corporate Virtue in the Eye of The Beholder? The Case of ESG Ratings

By: Dane Christensen, George Serafeim and Anywhere Sikochi

Despite the rising use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, there is substantial disagreement across rating agencies regarding what rating to give to individual firms. As what drives this disagreement is unclear, we examine whether a firm’s ESG... View Details

Keywords: ESG Ratings; Rating Agency Disagreement; ESG Disclosure; Corporate Social Responsibility; Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Disclosure

2018
Working Paper

Corporate Refinancing, Covenants, and the Agency Cost of Debt

By: Daniel Green

How valuable are restrictive debt covenants in reducing the agency costs of debt? I exploit the revealed preference decision to refinance fixed-coupon bonds, which weighs observable interest rate savings against the unobservable costs of a change in restrictive... View Details

Keywords: Covenants; Refinancing; Corporate Bonds; Agency Costs; Debt Policy; Borrowing and Debt; Bonds; Interest Rates

May 13, 2010
Column

How to Keep Politics out of Rating Agency Reform

By: Robert C. Pozen

Keywords: Government and Politics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

Research Summary

Credit markets

Bond market; Bank lending; Credit markets institutions; Credit ratings View Details

Article

Survive Another Day: Using Changes in the Composition of Investments to Measure the Cost of Credit Constraints

By: Luis Garicano and Claudia Steinwender

We introduce a novel empirical strategy to measure the size of credit shocks. Theoretically, we show that credit shocks reduce the value of long-term relative to short-term investments. Empirically, we can therefore compare the reduction of long-term relative to... View Details

Keywords: Credit Constraints; Credit Crunch; Spain; Investment Behavior; Credit Squeeze; Financial Crisis; Economic Growth; Investment; Credit; Manufacturing Industry; Spain; European Union

May 2005 (Revised November 2005)
Background Note

Note on Credit Derivatives

Provides the basic underlying model for credit risk analysis, as well as covers basic credit risk derivatives, such as asset swaps, credit default swaps, total return of rate swaps, and credit spread options. View Details

Keywords: Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Risk and Uncertainty; Credit

Educators

March 2016
Article

Trade Credit and Taxes

By: Mihir Desai, C. Fritz Foley and James R. Hines Jr.

This paper analyzes the extent to which firms use trade credit to reallocate capital in response to tax incentives. Tax-induced differences in pretax returns encourage the use of trade credit to reallocate capital from firms facing low tax rates to those facing high... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Trade; Credit; Capital

June 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Teaching Note

Private Capital and Public Policy: Standard & Poor's Sovereign Credit Ratings (TN)

By: Rawi E. Abdelal

Keywords: Public Sector; Credit; Financial Services Industry

September 2011
Article

How Did Increased Competition Affect Credit Ratings?

The credit rating industry has historically been dominated by just two agencies, Moody's and S&P, leading to longstanding legislative and regulatory calls for increased competition. The material entry of a third rating agency (Fitch) to the competitive landscape offers... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competition; Forecasting and Prediction; Theory

2008
Working Paper

How Did Increased Competition Affect Credit Ratings?

The credit rating industry has historically been dominated by just two agencies, Moody's and S&P, leading to longstanding legislative and regulatory calls for increased competition. The material entry of a third rating agency (Fitch) to the competitive landscape offers... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Financial Markets; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Quality; Reputation; Competition; Financial Services Industry

May 2010
Article

Loan Syndication and Credit Cycles

By: Victoria Ivashina and David Scharfstein

Cyclicality in the supply of business credit has been the focus of a considerable amount of research. This cyclicality can stem from shocks to borrowers' collateral, which affect firms' ability to raise capital if agency and information problems are significant (Ben S.... View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Capital; Credit; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; System Shocks; Financial Services Industry

March 1994 (Revised June 1995)
Background Note

Interest Rate Derivatives

By: Peter Tufano

Introduces and explains the six major interest rate derivative products: swaps, forward rate agreements, Eurodollar futures, bond options, caps/floors/collars, and swap options. View Details

Keywords: Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Interest Rates

Educators