Econ Focus
Reforming the Raters: Can regulatory reforms adequately realign the incentives of credit rating agencies?
Amid the financial turmoil, many have criticized the bond rating agencies. How do these agencies operate? And what do economists have to say about the role they play in a healthy capital market?
Related Links
Becker, Bo, and Todd Milborun. "Reputation and Competition: Evidence from the Credit Rating Industry." Harvard Business School Working Paper 09-051, October 2008.
Benmelech, Efraim, and Jennifer Dlugosz. "The Alchemy of CDO Credit Ratings." NBER Working Paper No. 14878, April 2009.
Benmelech, Efraim, and Jennifer Dlugosz. "The Credit Rating Crisis." NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2009, forthcoming.
Coval, Joshua, Jakub Jurek, and Erik Stafford. "The Economics of Structured Finance." Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2009, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 3-25.
Salmon, Felix. "Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street." Wired Magazine, Feb. 23, 2009.
Securities and Exchange Commission. "Summary Report of Issues Identified in the Commission Staff's Examinations of Select Credit Rating Agencies." July 2008.
Skreta, Vasiliki, and Laura Veldkamp. "Ratings Shopping and Asset Complexity: A Theory of Ratings Inflation." NBER Working Paper No. 14761, February 2009.
White, Lawrence J. "The Credit Rating Industry: An Industrial Organization Analysis." In Levich, Richard M., Giovanni Majnoni, and Carmen Reinhart. Ratings, Rating Agencies and the Global Financial System. New York: Springer, 2002.