IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecofin/v51y2020ics1062940818301372.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Procyclical ratings and market reactions

Author

Listed:
  • Kemper, Kristopher J.
  • Mortenson, Kristian

Abstract

We investigate stock price reactions to credit rating changes during competing economic environments. Prior research has shown that credit rating assignments differ during times of economic expansion and economic contraction. We investigate if equity prices adjust differently to changes in credit quality in different economic environments. Our results show that markets react more strongly to negative ratings news during times of economic contraction. When the economy is expanding, markets also overreact by pushing prices higher than they otherwise would during an economic downturn.

Suggested Citation

  • Kemper, Kristopher J. & Mortenson, Kristian, 2020. "Procyclical ratings and market reactions," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:51:y:2020:i:c:s1062940818301372
    DOI: 10.1016/j.najef.2018.08.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062940818301372
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.najef.2018.08.013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hand, John R M & Holthausen, Robert W & Leftwich, Richard W, 1992. "The Effect of Bond Rating Agency Announcements on Bond and Stock Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 733-752, June.
    2. Frydman, Halina & Schuermann, Til, 2008. "Credit rating dynamics and Markov mixture models," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1062-1075, June.
    3. Griffin, Paul A & Sanvicente, Antonio Z, 1982. "Common Stock Returns and Rating Changes: A Methodological Comparison," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 37(1), pages 103-119, March.
    4. Holthausen, Robert W. & Leftwich, Richard W., 1986. "The effect of bond rating changes on common stock prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 57-89, September.
    5. Gehrlein, William V. & McInish, Thomas H., 1985. "Cyclical variability of bond risk premia : A note," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 157-165, March.
    6. Goh, Jeremy C & Ederington, Louis H, 1993. "Is a Bond Rating Downgrade Bad News, Good News, or No News for Stockholders?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(5), pages 2001-2008, December.
    7. Hull, John & Predescu, Mirela & White, Alan, 2004. "The relationship between credit default swap spreads, bond yields, and credit rating announcements," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 2789-2811, November.
    8. Ilia D. Dichev & Joseph D. Piotroski, 2001. "The Long‐Run Stock Returns Following Bond Ratings Changes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 173-203, February.
    9. Heitor Almeida & Igor Cunha & Miguel A. Ferreira & Felipe Restrepo, 2017. "The Real Effects of Credit Ratings: The Sovereign Ceiling Channel," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(1), pages 249-290, February.
    10. Figlewski, Stephen & Frydman, Halina & Liang, Weijian, 2012. "Modeling the effect of macroeconomic factors on corporate default and credit rating transitions," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 87-105.
    11. Huong Dang & Graham Partington, 2014. "Rating Migrations: The Effect of History and Time," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 50(2), pages 174-202, June.
    12. Pogue, Thomas F. & Soldofsky, Robert M., 1969. "What's in a Bond Rating*," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 201-228, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ahmad, Wasim & Kutan, Ali M. & Chahal, Rishman Jot Kaur & Kattumuri, Ruth, 2021. "COVID-19 Pandemic and firm-level dynamics in the USA, UK, Europe, and Japan," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. Alanis, Emmanuel, 2020. "Is there valuable private information in credit ratings?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Heejin & Ahn, Hee-Joon & Kim, Maria H. & Ryu, Doojin, 2017. "Information asymmetry and investor trading behavior around bond rating change announcements," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 38-51.
    2. Norden, Lars & Weber, Martin, 2004. "Informational efficiency of credit default swap and stock markets: The impact of credit rating announcements," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 2813-2843, November.
    3. Ferri, Giovanni & Lacitignola, Punziana & Lee, Jeong Yeon, 2013. "Foreign ownership and the credibility of national rating agencies: Evidence from Korea," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 762-776.
    4. Abdelkader Boudriga & Dorsaf Azouz Ghachem, 2016. "Does US stock market react differently to rating announcements during crisis period? The case of the 2008 worldwide financial crisis," American Journal of Finance and Accounting, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(3/4), pages 193-214.
    5. Dorsaf Azouz Ghachem & Abdelkader Boudriga & Chokri Mamoghli, 2011. "Does The American Stock Market React Differently to Rating Announcements During A Crisis Period? The Case of the 2008 Worldwide Financial Crisis," Working Papers 601, Economic Research Forum, revised 07 Jan 2011.
    6. Imbierowicz, Björn & Wahrenburg, Mark, 2013. "Wealth transfer effects between stockholders and bondholders," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 23-43.
    7. Li, Huimin & Jeon, Bang Nam & Cho, Seong-Yeon & Chiang, Thomas C., 2008. "The impact of sovereign rating changes and financial contagion on stock market returns: Evidence from five Asian countries," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 46-55.
    8. Antonio, DI Cesare, 2006. "Do Market‐based Indicators Anticipate Rating Agencies? Evidence for International Banks," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 35(1), pages 121-150, February.
    9. May, Anthony D., 2010. "The impact of bond rating changes on corporate bond prices: New evidence from the over-the-counter market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2822-2836, November.
    10. Bannier, Christina E. & Hirsch, Christian W., 2010. "The economic function of credit rating agencies - What does the watchlist tell us?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 3037-3049, December.
    11. Afik, Zvika & Zabolotnyuk, Yuriy, 2023. "Information effect of credit rating announcements in transition economies," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    12. Yuriy Zabolotnyuk, 2018. "Wealth Effects of Bond Rating Announcements," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 22(3-4), pages 211-254, September.
    13. Fathi Nakai & Tarek Chebbi, 2023. "The informational content of sovereign credit rating: another look," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(5), pages 353-373, September.
    14. Kiesel, Florian, 2016. "The effect of credit and rating events on credit default swap and equity markets," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 81265, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    15. Chan, Pak To & Edwards, Vic & Walter, Terry, 2009. "The information content of Australian credit ratings: A comparison between subscription and non-subscription-based credit rating agencies," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 22-44, March.
    16. Kenjegaliev, Amangeldi & Duygun, Meryem & Mamedshakhova, Djamila, 2016. "Do rating grades convey important information: German evidence?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 334-344.
    17. Kiesel, F. & Kolaric, S., 2018. "Measuring the effect of watch-preceded and direct rating changes: a note on credit markets," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 87386, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    18. Kaveri Krishnan & Sankarshan Basu & Ashok Thampy, 2020. "Has the Global Financial Crisis Changed the Market Response to Credit Ratings? Evidence from an Emerging Market," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 19(1), pages 7-32, April.
    19. Galil, Koresh & Soffer, Gil, 2011. "Good news, bad news and rating announcements: An empirical investigation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 3101-3119, November.
    20. Finnerty, John D. & Miller, Cameron D. & Chen, Ren-Raw, 2013. "The impact of credit rating announcements on credit default swap spreads," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2011-2030.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Credit ratings; Business cycles; Event studies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:51:y:2020:i:c:s1062940818301372. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620163 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.