Background: Investors depend on rating agencies to provide an independent assessment of the ability of companies operating in the transition economy to meet their debt obligations. Any change in a firm's credit rating conveys informed signals about the financial health of the firm and that...

This paper studies the stock market response to corporate downgrades by S&P, Moody's and Fitch between 1999 and 2011. The empirical evidence shows that cumulative abnormal returns around downgrades become significantly smaller (in absolute value) after the release in 2003 of the Securities and...