Credit Ratings and Credit Risk
Brandeis University
Download Document| Date Published | 2012 |
| Version | |
| Primary Author | Jens Hilscher |
| Other Authors | Mungo Wilson |
| Theme | Risk Management of Housing Finance Institutions, The Secondary Market |
| Country |
Abstract
This paper investigates the information in corporate credit ratings. We examine the extent to which firms' credit ratings measure raw probability of default as opposed to systematic risk of default, a ?firm's tendency to default in bad times. We ?find that credit ratings are dominated as predictors of corporate failure by a simple model based on publicly available ?financial information ('failure score'), indicating that ratings are poor measures of raw default probability. However, ratings are strongly related to a straight- forward measure of systematic default risk: the sensitivity of ?rm default probability to its common component ('failure beta'). Furthermore, this systematic risk measure is strongly related to credit default swap risk premia. Our ?findings can explain otherwise puzzling qualities of ratings.