IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v34y2010i11p2822-2836.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of bond rating changes on corporate bond prices: New evidence from the over-the-counter market

Author

Listed:
  • May, Anthony D.

Abstract

I study the information content of bond ratings changes using daily corporate bond data from TRACE. Abnormal bond returns over a two-day event window that includes the downgrade (upgrade) are negative (positive) and statistically significant, although the reaction to upgrades is economically small. Monthly abnormal bond returns around downgrades and upgrades are statistically significant but overstate the magnitude of the reaction relative to two-day abnormal returns. Unlike the bond market, the stock market reaction to upgrades is statistically insignificant. Evidence suggests that the differing inferences on the effect of upgrades in the two markets can be attributed to wealth transfer effects rather than relative market inefficiencies. In the cross-section, the bond market response is stronger for rating changes that appear more surprising, rating changes of lower rated firms, and upgrades that move the firm from speculative grade to investment grade.

Suggested Citation

  • May, Anthony D., 2010. "The impact of bond rating changes on corporate bond prices: New evidence from the over-the-counter market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2822-2836, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:34:y:2010:i:11:p:2822-2836
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378-4266(10)00242-6
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James W. Wansley & Terrence M. Clauretie, 1985. "The Impact Of Creditwatch Placement On Equity Returns And Bond Prices," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 8(1), pages 31-42, March.
    2. Grier, Paul & Katz, Steven, 1976. "The Differential Effects of Bond Rating Changes among Industrial and Public Utility Bonds by Maturity," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(2), pages 226-239, April.
    3. Livingston, Miles & Naranjo, Andy & Zhou, Lei, 2008. "Split bond ratings and rating migration," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1613-1624, August.
    4. Behr, Patrick & Güttler, André, 2008. "The informational content of unsolicited ratings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 587-599, April.
    5. Kim, Yongtae & Nabar, Sandeep, 2007. "Bankruptcy probability changes and the differential informativeness of bond upgrades and downgrades," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 3843-3861, December.
    6. Merton, Robert C, 1974. "On the Pricing of Corporate Debt: The Risk Structure of Interest Rates," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(2), pages 449-470, May.
    7. Griffin, Paul A & Sanvicente, Antonio Z, 1982. "Common Stock Returns and Rating Changes: A Methodological Comparison," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 37(1), pages 103-119, March.
    8. Arnoud W. A. Boot & Todd T. Milbourn & Anjolein Schmeits, 2006. "Credit Ratings as Coordination Mechanisms," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(1), pages 81-118.
    9. Downing, Chris & Underwood, Shane & Xing, Yuhang, 2009. "The Relative Informational Efficiency of Stocks and Bonds: An Intraday Analysis," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(5), pages 1081-1102, October.
    10. Amy K. Edwards & Lawrence E. Harris & Michael S. Piwowar, 2007. "Corporate Bond Market Transaction Costs and Transparency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1421-1451, June.
    11. Jorion, Philippe & Liu, Zhu & Shi, Charles, 2005. "Informational effects of regulation FD: evidence from rating agencies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 309-330, May.
    12. Hand, John R M & Holthausen, Robert W & Leftwich, Richard W, 1992. "The Effect of Bond Rating Agency Announcements on Bond and Stock Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 733-752, June.
    13. Frydman, Halina & Schuermann, Til, 2008. "Credit rating dynamics and Markov mixture models," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1062-1075, June.
    14. 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.
    15. Norden, Lars & Weber, Martin, 2004. "Informational efficiency of credit default swap and stock markets: The impact of credit rating announcements," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 2813-2843, November.
    16. Kadam, Ashay & Lenk, Peter, 2008. "Bayesian inference for issuer heterogeneity in credit ratings migration," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 2267-2274, October.
    17. Goh, Jeremy C & Ederington, Louis H, 1993. "Is a Bond Rating Downgrade Bad News, Good News, or No News for Stockholders?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(5), pages 2001-2008, December.
    18. Hendrik Bessembinder & Kathleen M. Kahle & William F. Maxwell & Danielle Xu, 2009. "Measuring Abnormal Bond Performance," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(10), pages 4219-4258, October.
    19. Brown, Stephen J. & Warner, Jerold B., 1985. "Using daily stock returns : The case of event studies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 3-31, March.
    20. Goh, Jeremy C. & Ederington, Louis H., 1999. "Cross-sectional variation in the stock market reaction to bond rating changes," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 101-112.
    21. Li, Joanne & Shin, Yoon S. & Moore, William T., 2006. "Reactions of Japanese markets to changes in credit ratings by global and local agencies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 1007-1021, March.
    22. 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.
    23. Stolper, Anno, 2009. "Regulation of credit rating agencies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1266-1273, July.
    24. Cantor, Richard & Packer, Frank, 1997. "Differences of opinion and selection bias in the credit rating industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(10), pages 1395-1417, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Bannier, Christina E. & Hirsch, Christian W., 2010. "The economic function of credit rating agencies - What does the watchlist tell us?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 3037-3049, December.
    2. Brogaard, Jonathan & Koski, Jennifer L. & Siegel, Andrew F., 2019. "Do upgrades matter? Evidence from trading volume," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 54-77.
    3. Yuriy Zabolotnyuk, 2018. "Wealth Effects of Bond Rating Announcements," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 22(3-4), pages 211-254, September.
    4. 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.
    5. Kaveri Krishnan & Sankarshan Basu & Ashok Thampy, 2020. "Has the Global Financial Crisis Changed the Market Response to Credit Ratings? Evidence from an Emerging Market," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 19(1), pages 7-32, April.
    6. Hu, Haoshen & Kaspereit, Thomas & Prokop, Jörg, 2016. "The information content of issuer rating changes: Evidence for the G7 stock markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 99-108.
    7. Kiesel, F. & Kolaric, S., 2018. "Measuring the effect of watch-preceded and direct rating changes: a note on credit markets," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 87386, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    8. Yang, Heejin & Ahn, Hee-Joon & Kim, Maria H. & Ryu, Doojin, 2017. "Information asymmetry and investor trading behavior around bond rating change announcements," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 38-51.
    9. repec:uts:finphd:36 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Chamroeun Sok, 2012. "Corporate Credit Rating Announcements: Information Content of Rating Announcements Models: Evidence from the Australian Financial Markets," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 4-2012.
    11. Florian Kiesel & Sascha Kolaric, 2018. "Measuring the effect of watch-preceded and direct rating changes: a note on credit markets," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 653-672, February.
    12. Schaetzle, Dominik, 2011. "Ratingagenturen in der neoklassischen Finanzierungstheorie: Eine Auswertung empirischer Studien zum Informationsgehalt von Ratings," Arbeitspapiere 110, University of Münster, Institute for Cooperatives.
    13. María Concepción Verona Martel & José Juan Déniz Mayor, 2011. "Las agencias de rating y la crisis fi nanciera de 2008: ¿El fi n de un poder sin control?," Revista Criterio Libre, Universidad Libre - Sede Principal, June.
    14. Dorsaf Azouz Ghachem & Abdelkader Boudriga & Chokri Mamoghli, 2011. "Does The American Stock Market React Differently to Rating Announcements During A Crisis Period? The Case of the 2008 Worldwide Financial Crisis," Working Papers 601, Economic Research Forum, revised 07 Jan 2011.
    15. Kenjegaliev, Amangeldi & Duygun, Meryem & Mamedshakhova, Djamila, 2016. "Do rating grades convey important information: German evidence?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 334-344.
    16. Henry, Tyler R. & Kisgen, Darren J. & Wu, Juan (Julie), 2015. "Equity short selling and bond rating downgrades," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 89-111.
    17. Abdelkader Boudriga & Dorsaf Azouz Ghachem, 2016. "Does US stock market react differently to rating announcements during crisis period? The case of the 2008 worldwide financial crisis," American Journal of Finance and Accounting, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(3/4), pages 193-214.
    18. Kiesel, Florian, 2016. "The effect of credit and rating events on credit default swap and equity markets," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 81265, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    19. Ferri, Giovanni & Lacitignola, Punziana & Lee, Jeong Yeon, 2013. "Foreign ownership and the credibility of national rating agencies: Evidence from Korea," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 762-776.
    20. Kiesel, F., 2016. "The effect of credit and rating events on credit default swap and equity markets," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 81247, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    21. Norden, Lars & Weber, Martin, 2004. "Informational efficiency of credit default swap and stock markets: The impact of credit rating announcements," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 2813-2843, November.

    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:eee:jbfina:v:34:y:2010:i:11:p:2822-2836. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    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.