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Credit Rating Agency Announcements and the Eurozone Sovereign Debt Crisis

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Listed:
  • Christopher F. Baum
  • Margarita Karpava
  • Dorothea Schäfer
  • Andreas Stephan

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of credit rating agency (CRA) announcements on the value of the Euro and the yields of French, Italian, German and Spanish long-term sovereign bonds during the culmination of the Eurozone debt crisis in 2011-2012. The employed GARCH models show that CRA downgrade announcements negatively affected the value of the Euro currency and also increased its volatility. Downgrading increased the yields of French, Italian and Spanish bonds but lowered the German bond's yields, although Germany's rating status was never touched by CRA. There is no evidence for Granger causality from bond yields to rating announcements. We infer from these findings that CRA announcements significantly influenced crisis-time capital allocation in the Eurozone. Their downgradings caused investors to rebalance their portfolios across member countries, out of ailing states' debt into more stable borrowers' securities.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher F. Baum & Margarita Karpava & Dorothea Schäfer & Andreas Stephan, 2013. "Credit Rating Agency Announcements and the Eurozone Sovereign Debt Crisis," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1333, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1333
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. William Perraudin & Andrew Powell & Peng Yang, 2016. "Multilateral Development Bank Ratings and Preferred Creditor Status," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 94656, Inter-American Development Bank.
    2. Böninghausen, Benjamin & Zabel, Michael, 2015. "Credit ratings and cross-border bond market spillovers," Working Paper Series 1831, European Central Bank.
    3. Böninghausen, Benjamin & Zabel, Michael, 2015. "Credit ratings and cross-border bond market spillovers," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 115-136.
    4. Patrycja Chodnicka-Jaworska, "undated". "Banks Credit Rating Changes And Their Stock Prices €“ The Impact Of Political Divisions And Economy Development," Review of Socio - Economic Perspectives 201603, Reviewsep.
    5. Lennart Freitag, 2015. "Procyclicality and Path Dependence of Sovereign Credit Ratings: The Example of Europe," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 44(2), pages 309-332, July.
    6. Chiwitt, Ulrich, 2014. "Ratingagenturen - Fluch oder Segen? Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme," Arbeitspapiere der FOM 48, FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management.
    7. Perraudin, William & Powell, Andrew & Yang, Peng, 2016. "Multilateral Development Bank Ratings and Preferred Creditor Status," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 7686, Inter-American Development Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Credit Rating Agencies; Euro Crisis; Sovereign Debt; Euro Exchange Rate;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • F42 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - International Policy Coordination and Transmission
    • F65 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Finance

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