Sovereign credit rating determinants: A comparison before and after the European debt crisis

Peter Reusens and Christophe Croux

Journal of Banking & Finance, 2017, vol. 77, issue C, 108-121

Abstract: This paper compares the importance of different sovereign credit rating determinants over time, using a sample of 90 countries for the years 2002–2015. Applying the composite marginal likelihood approach, we estimate a multi-year ordered probit model for each of the three major credit rating agencies. After the start of the European debt crisis in 2009, the importance of the financial balance, the economic development and the external debt increased substantially and the effect of eurozone membership switched from positive to negative. In addition, GDP growth gained a lot of importance for highly indebted sovereigns and government debt became much more important for countries with a low GDP growth rate. These findings provide empirical evidence that the credit rating agencies changed their sovereign credit rating assessment after the start of the European debt crisis.

Keywords: Composite marginal likelihood; Credit rating agencies; European debt crisis; Multi-year ordered probit model; Sovereign credit rating determinants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C33 C35 F34 G24 H63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (45)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:77:y:2017:i:c:p:108-121

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2017.01.006

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