This paper describes and evaluates the sovereign credit ratings methodologies of Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service, and Fitch Ratings. A simple definition of ratings failure based on ratings stability - is proposed and tested, pointing to falling failure rates, consistent upside bias,...

Since 2002, spreads on emerging market sovereign debt have fallen to historical lows. Given the close links between sovereign spreads, capital flows to emerging markets, and economic growth, understanding the factors driving these spreads is very important. We address this issue in two stages....

We study the factors behind split ratings in sovereign credit ratings from different agencies, for the period 1980-2015. We employ random effects ordered and simple probit approaches to assess the explanatory power of different macroeconomic, government and financial variables. Our results show...

The purpose of this article is to analyse factors that can influence on the European country's credit rating. The analysis was performed according to the level of economic development in accordance with the division proposed by the World Bank. There were applied static and dynamic panel data...

This paper focuses on emerging countries whose credit ratings are upgraded to investmentʺ level since 1990 and analyses the trends in selected financial and macroeconomic indicators before and after the upgrade decision. The analysis reveals that access to foreign capital gets easier after...

For most European Union countries the government expenditure exceeds government revenue which could lead in the long run to an increase in the government debt to GDP ratio. Considering the distortions generated by the financial and economic crisis, followed by the debt crisis, both local and...

We examine whether changes in sovereign credit ratings assessments provided by rating agencies help to determine international bank flows to emerging countries. We focus on the quarterly banking flows of G7 countries to a sample of 55 emerging market borrowers for the period 1995-2008. We find...

This study investigates the nonlinear relationship between public debt and sovereign credit ratings, using a wide sample of over one hundred advanced, emerging, and developing economies. It finds that: i) higher public debt lowers the probability of being placed in a higher rating category; ii)...

Since 2002, spreads on emerging market sovereign debt have fallen to historical lows. Given the close links between sovereign spreads, capital flows to emerging markets, and economic growth, understanding the factors driving these spreads is very important. We address this issue in two stages....

Using foreign currency long-term sovereign rating data from 93 countries and for more than 30 years, panel data econometric analyses show non-monotonic relation between pro-cyclicality of government consumption and sovereign risk scores. That is, countries with limited access to foreign credits...