Accounting Review, NOV 2018

对广泛覆盖的企业的信用评级是否更严格？

作者：Bonsall, SB (Penn State Univ);

Green, JR (Penn State Univ);

Muller, KA (Penn State Univ)

摘要：本文研究商业新闻报道如何规范信用评级机构的行为。由于更广泛的重要性和对市场参与者的可见性，更广泛覆盖的公司可以为评级机构带来更高的声誉成本。与限制此类风险的评级机构一样，本文发现对于更广泛覆盖的公司的评级更加及时和准确，其评级在违约前一年中更早地降级且系统性地降低，并且能更好地预测违约和非违约。本文还发现，近期信贷评级标准的收紧主要是由于公共债务发行人的业务新闻报道不断增加。此外，本文发现信用评级机构通过将受过良好教育和经验丰富的分析师分配给广泛覆盖的公司来提高评级准确性。最后，我们观测记录到更引人瞩目的公司的违约会给评级机构带来更大的负面经济后果，而金融危机后的评级改善对于更引人瞩目的公司来说更大。

关键词：信用评级机构；媒体；声望；债务市场

Are Credit Ratings More Rigorous for Widely Covered Firms?

Bonsall, SB (Penn State Univ); Green, JR (Penn State Univ); Muller, KA (Penn State Univ)

ABSTRACT

We study how business press coverage can discipline credit rating agency actions. Because of their greater prominence and visibility to market participants, more widely covered firms can pose greater reputational costs for rating agencies. Consistent with rating agencies limiting such risk, we find that ratings for more widely covered firms are more timely and accurate, downgraded earlier and systematically lower in the year prior to default, and better predictors of default and non-default. We also find that the recent tightening of credit rating standards is largely explained by growing business press coverage of public debt issuers. Additionally, we find that credit rating agencies take explicit actions to improve their ratings by assigning better educated and more experienced analysts to widely covered firms. Moreover, we document that missed defaults of more visible firms create greater negative economic consequences for rating agencies, and that rating improvements following the financial crisis were greater for more visible firms.

Keywords: Credit rating agencies; Media; Reputation; Debt markets

原文链接：

https://aaajournals.org/doi/abs/10.2308/accr-52044

翻译：谭丰林