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

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_D8232146B37D
Type
Report: a report published by a school or other institution, usually numbered within a series.
Publication sub-type
Working paper: Working papers contain results presented by the author. Working papers aim to stimulate discussions between scientists with interested parties, they can also be the basis to publish articles in specialized journals
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Why Ratings Matter: Evidence from Lehman's Index Rating Rule Change
Author(s)
Chen Z., Lookman A., Schuerhoff N., Seppi D.
Institution details
EFA (European Finance Association) 2009 Bergen Meetings Papers
Issued date
06/2009
Language
english
Abstract
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.
Keywords
Institutional price pressure, rating-based regulation, market segmentation, index addition, corporate bond, institutional investors
Create date
30/04/2008 14:37
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:57
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