IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jmoncb/v42y2010i7p1267-1293.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Moody's and S&P Ratings: Are They Equivalent? Conservative Ratings and Split Rated Bond Yields

Author

Listed:
  • MILES LIVINGSTON
  • JIE (DIANA) WEI
  • LEI ZHOU

Abstract

We examine the relative impact of Moody's and S&P ratings on bond yields and find that at issuance, yields on split rated bonds with superior Moody's ratings are about 8 basis points lower than yields on split rated bonds with superior S&P ratings. This suggests that investors differentiate between the two ratings and assign more weight to the ratings from Moody’s, the more conservative rating agency. Moody's becomes more conservative after 1998 and the impact of a superior Moody's rating becomes stronger. Furthermore, the differential impact of the two ratings is more pronounced for the more opaque Rule 144A issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Miles Livingston & Jie (Diana) Wei & Lei Zhou, 2010. "Moody's and S&P Ratings: Are They Equivalent? Conservative Ratings and Split Rated Bond Yields," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(7), pages 1267-1293, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jmoncb:v:42:y:2010:i:7:p:1267-1293
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1538-4616.2010.00341.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1538-4616.2010.00341.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1538-4616.2010.00341.x?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. H. Kent Baker & Sattar A. Mansi, 2002. "Assessing Credit Rating Agencies by Bond Issuers and Institutional Investors," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(9&10), pages 1367-1398.
    2. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:4:p:1389-1413 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Kidwell, David S. & Marr, M. Wayne & Thompson, G. Rodney, 1984. "SEC Rule 415: The Ultimate Competitive Bid," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 183-195, June.
    4. Susan Chaplinsky & Latha Ramchand, 2004. "The Impact of SEC Rule 144A on Corporate Debt Issuance by International Firms," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(4), pages 1073-1098, October.
    5. Kidwell, David S & Marr, M Wayne & Thompson, G Rodney, 1987. "Shelf Registration: Competition and Market Flexibility," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(1), pages 181-206, April.
    6. Alexander W. Butler, 2008. "Distance Still Matters: Evidence from Municipal Bond Underwriting," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 763-784, April.
    7. Van Roy, Patrick, 2005. "Credit ratings and the standardised approach to credit risk in Basel II," Working Paper Series 517, European Central Bank.
    8. Marshall E. Blume & Felix Lim & A. Craig MacKinlay, "undated". "The Declining Credit Quality of US Corporate Debt: Myth or Reality?," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 03-98, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    9. Miles Livingston & Lei Zhou, 2010. "Split Bond Ratings and Information Opacity Premiums," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 39(2), pages 515-532, June.
    10. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2003. "Cluster-Sample Methods in Applied Econometrics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 133-138, May.
    11. H. Kent Baker & Sattar A. Mansi, 2002. "Assessing Credit Rating Agencies by Bond Issuers and Institutional Investors," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(9‐10), pages 1367-1398.
    12. Miles Livingston & Andy Naranjo & Lei Zhou, 2007. "Asset Opaqueness and Split Bond Ratings," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 36(3), pages 49-62, September.
    13. Houweling, Patrick & Mentink, Albert & Vorst, Ton, 2005. "Comparing possible proxies of corporate bond liquidity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1331-1358, June.
    14. repec:fth:pennfi:67 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Kose John & S. Abraham Ravid & Natalia Reisel, 2010. "The Notching Rule for Subordinated Debt and the Information Content of Debt Rating," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 39(2), pages 489-513, June.
    16. Liu, Pu & Moore, William T, 1987. "The Impact of Split Bond Ratings on Risk Premia," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 22(1), pages 71-85, February.
    17. Marshall E. Blume & Felix Lim & A. Craig MacKinlay, "undated". "The Declining Credit Quality of US Corporate Debt: Myth or Reality?," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 3-98, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    18. 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.
    19. Reiter, Sara A & Ziebart, David A, 1991. "Bond Yields, Ratings, and Financial Information: Evidence from Public Utility Issues," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 26(1), pages 45-73, February.
    20. Guttler, Andre & Wahrenburg, Mark, 2007. "The adjustment of credit ratings in advance of defaults," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 751-767, March.
    21. Doron Avramov & Tarun Chordia & Gergana Jostova & Alexander Philipov, 2007. "Momentum and Credit Rating," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(5), pages 2503-2520, October.
    22. Miles Livingston & Lei Zhou, 2002. "The Impact of Rule 144A Debt Offerings Upon Bond Yields and Underwriter Fees," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 31(4), Winter.
    23. Ederington, Louis H. & Goh, Jeremy C., 1998. "Bond Rating Agencies and Stock Analysts: Who Knows What When?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(4), pages 569-585, December.
    24. Yu, Fan, 2005. "Accounting transparency and the term structure of credit spreads," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 53-84, January.
    25. Richard Cantor & Kevin Cole & Frank Packer, 1997. "Split ratings and the pricing of credit risk," Research Paper 9711, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    26. Jeff Jewell & Miles Livingston, 1998. "Split Ratings, Bond Yields, And Underwriter Spreads," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 21(2), pages 185-204, June.
    27. Donald P. Morgan, 2002. "Rating Banks: Risk and Uncertainty in an Opaque Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 874-888, September.
    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. Yigit Atilgan & Aloke (Al) Ghosh & Meng Yan & Jieying Zhang, 2015. "Cross‐Listed Bonds, Information Asymmetry, and Conservatism in Credit Ratings," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(5), pages 897-929, August.
    2. Jun Duanmu & Garrett A. McBrayer, 2024. "Structural Drivers of Credit Rating Uncertainty: An Examination of the Changes Imposed by Dodd-Frank," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 65(2), pages 243-267, June.
    3. Ren, Xiaohang & An, Yaning & Jin, Chenglu & Yan, Cheng, 2024. "Weathering the policy storm: How climate strategy volatility shapes corporate total factor productivity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    4. A. Seetharaman & Vikas Kumar Sahu & A. S. Saravanan & John Rudolph Raj & Indu Niranjan, 2017. "The Impact of Risk Management in Credit Rating Agencies," Risks, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-16, September.
    5. Nikos Ventouris & Georgios Palaiodimos, 2022. "Proposals for the reform of EU fiscal rules," Economic Bulletin, Bank of Greece, issue 55, pages 67-81, July.
    6. Barth, Andreas & Laturnus, Valerie & Mansouri, Sasan & Wagner, Alexander, 2021. "ICO analysts," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242429, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    7. Panagiotis K. Staikouras, 2012. "A Theoretical and Empirical Review of the EU Regulation on Credit Rating Agencies: In Search of Truth, Not Scapegoats," Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 71-155, May.
    8. Christos Catiforis, 2022. "Post-pandemic inflation: Phillips Curve, trends, drivers and lessons," Economic Bulletin, Bank of Greece, issue 55, pages 43-65, July.
    9. Hasan, Iftekhar & Huang, He & To, Thomas Y., 2021. "Are credit rating disagreements priced in the M&A market?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    10. Vu, Huong & Alsakka, Rasha & ap Gwilym, Owain, 2022. "Does competition improve sovereign credit rating quality?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    11. Francesco Sangiorgi & Chester Spatt, 2017. "Opacity, Credit Rating Shopping, and Bias," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(12), pages 4016-4036, December.
    12. Helmut Wasserbacher & Martin Spindler, 2024. "Credit Ratings: Heterogeneous Effect on Capital Structure," Papers 2406.18936, arXiv.org.
    13. Kenourgios, Dimitrios & Umar, Zaghum & Lemonidi, Paraskevi, 2020. "On the effect of credit rating announcements on sovereign bonds: International evidence," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 58-71.
    14. Cuadros-Solas, Pedro Jesús & Salvador Muñoz, Carlos, 2022. "Disentangling the sources of sovereign rating adjustments: An examination of changes in rating policies following the GFC," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    15. Arikawa, Yasuhiro & Byoun, Soku & Han, Seung Hun & Pagano, Michael S. & Shin, Yoon S., 2024. "The role of Japanese corporate governance features in explaining rating differences between global and Japanese rating agencies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    16. Pilar Abad & M. Dolores Robles, 2015. "The Risk–Return Binomial After Rating Changes," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 44(2), pages 249-274, July.
    17. Huang, Yu-Li & Shen, Chung-Hua, 2019. "What role does the investor-paid rating agency play in China? Competitor or information provider," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 253-272.
    18. Klusak, Patrycja & Alsakka, Rasha & ap Gwilym, Owain, 2019. "The impact of ESMA regulatory identifiers on the quality of ratings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    19. Abad, Pilar & Ferreras, Rodrigo & Robles, M.-Dolores, 2020. "Information opacity and corporate bond returns: The dynamics of split ratings," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 68(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. Miles Livingston & Lei Zhou, 2010. "Split Bond Ratings and Information Opacity Premiums," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 39(2), pages 515-532, June.
    2. Miles Livingston & Lei Zhou, 2016. "Information Opacity And Fitch Bond Ratings," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 39(4), pages 329-358, December.
    3. Thomas Mählmann, 2009. "Multiple Credit Ratings, Cost of Debt and Self‐Selection," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(9‐10), pages 1228-1251, November.
    4. Berwart, Erik & Guidolin, Massimo & Milidonis, Andreas, 2019. "An empirical analysis of changes in the relative timeliness of issuer-paid vs. investor-paid ratings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 88-118.
    5. Yigit Atilgan & Aloke (Al) Ghosh & Meng Yan & Jieying Zhang, 2015. "Cross‐Listed Bonds, Information Asymmetry, and Conservatism in Credit Ratings," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(5), pages 897-929, August.
    6. Thomas Mählmann, 2009. "Multiple Credit Ratings, Cost of Debt and Self-Selection," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(9-10), pages 1228-1251.
    7. Jun Duanmu & Garrett A. McBrayer, 2024. "Structural Drivers of Credit Rating Uncertainty: An Examination of the Changes Imposed by Dodd-Frank," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 65(2), pages 243-267, June.
    8. Samuel B. Bonsall & Brian P. Miller, 2017. "The impact of narrative disclosure readability on bond ratings and the cost of debt," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 608-643, June.
    9. Xia, Han, 2014. "Can investor-paid credit rating agencies improve the information quality of issuer-paid rating agencies?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 450-468.
    10. Panagiotis K. Staikouras, 2012. "A Theoretical and Empirical Review of the EU Regulation on Credit Rating Agencies: In Search of Truth, Not Scapegoats," Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 71-155, May.
    11. Abad, Pilar & Ferreras, Rodrigo & Robles, M.-Dolores, 2020. "Information opacity and corporate bond returns: The dynamics of split ratings," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    12. Milidonis, Andreas, 2013. "Compensation incentives of credit rating agencies and predictability of changes in bond ratings and financial strength ratings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3716-3732.
    13. Rongbing Huang & Gabriel G. Ramírez, 2010. "Speed of Issuance, Lender Specialization, and the Rise of the 144A Debt Market," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 39(2), pages 643-673, June.
    14. Federica Salvadè, 2018. "Is less information better information? Evidence from the credit rating withdrawal," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 139-157, July.
    15. Steve Fortin & Jeffrey A. Pittman, 2007. "The Role of Auditor Choice in Debt Pricing in Private Firms," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(3), pages 859-896, September.
    16. Huang, Yu-Li & Shen, Chung-Hua, 2019. "What role does the investor-paid rating agency play in China? Competitor or information provider," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 253-272.
    17. Miles Livingston & Andy Naranjo & Lei Zhou, 2007. "Asset Opaqueness and Split Bond Ratings," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 36(3), pages 49-62, September.
    18. Arikawa, Yasuhiro & Byoun, Soku & Han, Seung Hun & Pagano, Michael S. & Shin, Yoon S., 2024. "The role of Japanese corporate governance features in explaining rating differences between global and Japanese rating agencies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    19. Shen, Chung-Hua & Huang, Yu-Li & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2012. "Asymmetric benchmarking in bank credit rating," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 171-193.
    20. Christina E. Bannier & Patrick Behr & Andre Güttler, 2010. "Rating opaque borrowers: why are unsolicited ratings lower?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 14(2), pages 263-294.

    More about this item

    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:wly:jmoncb:v:42:y:2010:i:7:p:1267-1293. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2879 .

    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.