Why Ratings Matter: Evidence from Lehman's Index Rating Rule Change

Détails

ID Serval
serval:BIB_D8232146B37D
Type
Rapport: document publié par une institution, habituellement élément d'une série.
Sous-type
Working paper: document de travail dans lequel l'auteur présente les résultats de ses travaux de recherche. Les working papers ont pour but de stimuler les discussions scientifiques avec les milieux intéressés et servent de base pour la publication d'articles dans des revues spécialisées.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Titre
Why Ratings Matter: Evidence from Lehman's Index Rating Rule Change
Auteur⸱e⸱s
Chen Z., Lookman A., Schuerhoff N., Seppi D.
Détails de l'institution
EFA (European Finance Association) 2009 Bergen Meetings Papers
Date de publication
06/2009
Langue
anglais
Résumé
We examine institutional price pressure in corporate bond markets by exploiting an unanticipated mechanical change in how a Lehman's bond index is constructed. We show that bond market segmentation into investment-grade and high-yield sectors because of rating-based regulation has a first-order impact on security prices. Institutional investors with investment constraints increase their holdings of split-rated bonds that are now mechanically considered investment-grade instead of high-yield by Lehman, resulting in temporary order imbalances that creates positive price pressure. Bonds that are mechanically upgraded to investment-grade exhibit large capital flows and experience positive abnormal returns of 200 basis points over a two week horizon. Price reactions are transitory, however, and vanish after twenty to thirty days. Similarly, bonds that were expected to downgrade to high-yield but were mechanically upgraded also exhibit transitory positive abnormal returns and reduced net selling. Taken together, our results suggest that the demand curve for bonds is downward-sloping in the short run.
Mots-clé
Institutional price pressure, rating-based regulation, market segmentation, index addition, corporate bond, institutional investors
Création de la notice
30/04/2008 15:37
Dernière modification de la notice
20/08/2019 16:57
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