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Costly information transmission in continuous time with implications for credit rating announcements

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  • Wang, Hefei

Abstract

This paper formulates a continuous-time information transmission model in which an altruistic sender privately observes a stochastic state variable, and incurs a communication cost when she broadcasts a message. We characterize the sender's optimal announcement strategy using an ordinary differential equation. We prove the optimality of the sender's strategies using a martingale verification argument and show that the sender's optimal strategy involves sending discrete messages. Furthermore, we apply the model to the timing decision of credit rating announcements and provide a framework to study various aspects of rating announcements, such as the probability of rating reversals and the expected time before a rating change.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Hefei, 2012. "Costly information transmission in continuous time with implications for credit rating announcements," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 1402-1413.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:36:y:2012:i:9:p:1402-1413
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2012.03.003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dynamic information transmission; Costly talk; Credit rating announcement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis

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