Determinants and Impact of Sovereign Credit Ratings

n recent years, the demand for sovereign credit rat-ings—the risk assessments assigned by the creditrating agencies to the obligations of central govern-ments—has increased dramatically. More govern-ments with greater default risk and more companiesdomiciled in riskier host countries are borrowing in inter-national bond markets. Although foreign government offi-cials generally cooperate with the agencies, ratingassignments that are lower than anticipated often promptissuers to question the consistency and rationale of sover-eign ratings. How clear are the criteria underlying sover-eign ratings? Moreover, how much of an impact do ratingshave on borrowing costs for sovereigns?To explore these questions, we present the firstsystematic analysis of the determinants and impact of thesovereign credit ratings assigned by the two leading U.S.agencies, Moody’s Investors Service and Standard andPoor’s.