This article presents event studies that find a significant effect on dollar bond yield spreads when rating agencies put emerging-market sovereign bonds on review with negative outlook. The finding has two conditional implications. If rating agencies can be turned from late into early warning...

Against the background of the present financial crisis Otmar Issing and Jan Krahnen, members of the expert commission advising the German government on issues relating to financial crisis prevention, have suggested the creation of a "global risk map" to be enhanced by a global credit register....