In this paper, we review the academic evidence on the roles and quality of credit ratings and structure our review around questions that are of interest to academics, professionals, and regulators alike. We review the evidence on how ratings affect market prices and corporate policies and...

We show that a rating agency can provide certification for corporate borrowers through the mechanism of a credit watch with direction downgrade. We find that firms with watch-preceded rating confirmations (firms for which original ratings are confirmed after a credit watch warning) experience an...