Rating Agency Reputation, the Global Financial Crisis, and the Cost of Debt
研究发现，外国公司在本国发行本币债券时，全球评级机构给出的评级通常更低，但债券收益率却比国内评级机构低11-14个基点；然而2007-2009年金融危机期间，这一优势完全消失，表明全球评级机构的声誉在危机中受损。
Why do foreign firms obtain credit ratings by global rating agencies rather than from their home country's rating agencies even though global raters typically assign lower credit ratings when these foreign firms issue bonds in their home currencies? We find that bonds rated by a global agency decreased yields 11‐14 basis points (bps) when compared to those rated by Japanese rating agencies but, during the 2007‐2009 financial crisis, the yields on these Japanese bonds increased 12‐17 bps, thus fully negating the advantage of obtaining a bond rating from a global rater. This suggests that the reputation of global rating agencies declined during the 2007‐2009 crisis period.