Credit Ratings as Coordination Mechanisms
提出信用评级在多重均衡情形中充当协调机制，为企业和投资者提供焦点，并探讨评级机构与公司间隐含的契约关系，模型预测了评级变动的价格影响。
In this article, we provide a novel rationale for credit ratings. The rationale that we propose is that credit ratings serve as a coordinating mechanism in situations where multiple equilibria can obtain. We show that credit ratings provide a "focal point" for firms and their investors, and explore the vital, but previously overlooked implicit contractual relationship between a credit rating agency (CRA) and a firm through its credit watch procedures. Credit ratings can help fix the desired equilibrium and as such play an economically meaningful role. Our model provides several empirical predictions and insights regarding the expected price impact of rating changes. <P>This discussion paper has resulted in a publication in <A href="http://rfs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/1/81"><I>The Review of Financial Studies</I></A>, 2006, 19(1), 81-118.