Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/108847 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Citation: 
[Journal:] Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal [ISSN:] 1864-6042 [Volume:] 9 [Issue:] 2015-9 [Publisher:] Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) [Place:] Kiel [Year:] 2015 [Pages:] 1-54
Publisher: 
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Kiel
Abstract: 
It is a matter of debate in how far credit ratings contribute to allocative efficiency or to excessive volatility of asset prices and cross-border capital flows. Yet it is generally taken for granted that ratings play a significant role in the transnationalization of financial relations. This paper tests that hypothesis with data on sovereign credit ratings and foreign portfolio investment. A rating-related gravity model of finance is derived from the choice-theoretical framework of Okawa and van Wincoop (Gravity in International Finance, 2012) and estimated in three stages. At the first stage, the authors find that the introduction and evolution of sovereign ratings since the 1970s has affected inward portfolio investment in host countries. At the second stage, they examine to which extent sovereign ratings help to predict the degree of investors' home bias, and whether they can account for the divergent dynamics before and after the global financial crisis. At the third stage, the authors look at the explanatory content of ratings for the determination of the size of bilateral portfolio investment. Evidence for a significant role of sovereign ratings is found at all three stages.
Subjects: 
credit rating agencies
portfolio investment
gravity model
home bias
JEL: 
F41
F65
G11
G24
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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