Do Bond Issuers Shop for Favorable Credit Ratings?
研究公司债券市场中的评级选购行为，发现发行人更倾向于选择对其债券有正向偏见的评级机构，且这种效应在复杂债券中更显著，投资者会要求更高收益率以补偿偏差。
This paper provides evidence of ratings shopping in the corporate bond market. By estimating systematic differences in agencies’ biases about any given firm’s bonds, I show that new bonds are more likely to be rated by agencies that are positively biased toward the firm—a pattern that is strongest among bonds that have only one rating. The paper also shows that issuers often delay less favorable ratings until after a bond is sold. Consistent with theoretical models of ratings shopping, these effects are strongest among more complex bonds that are more difficult to rate. Bonds with upward-biased ratings are more likely to be downgraded and default, but investors account for this bias and demand higher yields when buying these bonds. This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance.