We report on the current state and important older findings of empirical studies on corporate credit ratings and their … relationship to ratings of other entities. Specifically, we consider the results of three lines of research: The correlation of … credit ratings and corporate default, the influence of ratings on capital markets, and the determinants of credit ratings and …

Standard explanatory variables that determine credit ratings do not achieve significant effects in a sample of 100 US …-established macroeconomic effects of credit ratings found by Blume et al. (1998) and highlights the influence of the rating agencies' through …

This paper provides evidence of ratings shopping in the corporate bond market. By estimating systematic differences in … issuers often delay less favorable ratings until after a bond is sold. Consistent with theoretical models of ratings shopping …, these effects are strongest among more complex bonds that are more difficult to rate. Bonds with upward-biased ratings are …

the assignment of sovereign credit ratings, using the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis of 2009-2012 as a natural laboratory … two more US-tied peers, assigned on average more favourable ratings to Eurozone issuers during the crisis. However, Fitch …'s better ratings for Eurozone issuers seem to be neglected by investors as they rather follow the rating actions of Moody's and …

We analyze a rating agency's incentives to distort ratings in a model with a monopolistic profit maximizing rating …

We empirically investigate the benefits of multiple ratings not only at issuance of debt instruments but also during … evidence that rating agencies put more effort in rating and outlook revisions when tranches have assigned multiple ratings …. Furthermore, we demonstrate that in the case of multiple ratings, agencies do a better job in discriminating tranches with respect …