Using an international sample of more than 65,000 rating actions by Fitch, Moody's and S&P, we analyze the effect of the Dodd-Frank Act on credit ratings. We document that (i) rating report content changes significantly after Dodd-Frank and (ii) show, by exploiting within firm-quarter variation,...

Using an international sample of more than 65,000 rating actions by Fitch, Moody's and S&P, we analyze the effect of the Dodd-Frank Act on credit ratings. We document that (i) rating report content changes significantly after Dodd-Frank and (ii) show, by exploiting within firm-quarter variation,...

Competitions often serve to identify the most capable individual or increase overall effort in corporations and sports. Whether to provide individuals with (ranking) information in such a context is an intriguing question. We investigate individuals' competitive behavior under different degrees...

We investigate whether the stock market impact of tone in Moody's rating reports depends on negative news. Reports convey negative news through negative rating actions (downgrades, reviews for downgrade or negative outlooks) or negative tone if there is no rating action. Using data from U.S....

We investigate whether credit rating agencies systematically follow each other's rating decisions. Therefore we rely on the rotation of rating analysts within credit rating agencies and their impact on the rating. Using this institutional setup we can disentangle causal herding behavior from...

We investigate whether credit rating agencies systematically follow each other's rating decisions. Therefore we rely on the rotation of rating analysts within credit rating agencies and their impact on the rating. Using this institutional setup we can disentangle causal herding behavior from...

During the 1960s and 1970s a large number of immigrants came to Germany as temporary labour migrants. Many of them remained, captured their family and their children entered the labour market since the eighties. Our paper analyses their labour market experience in terms of employment,...