Since the 1980s, countries in Latin America and elsewhere in the developing world have made great strides to increase foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio investment (PI) inflows and earn higher ratings on their sovereign bond issuances to increase capital sources and help promote...

Much scholarship in the political economy literature has investigated the influence of the democratic advantage on sovereign bond ratings by credit rating agencies (CRAs). Missing from earlier work, however, is inquiry into the effects on bond ratings of factors that lower political risk, such...

Building on recent works showing the role that legal institutions can play in attracting foreign investment to developing countries, and drawing on insights obtained from Powell and Rickard (International Interactions 36: 335–362, 2010), we demonstrate that developing countries with...