This paper investigates the incentive of credit rating agencies (CRAs) to bias ratings using a semiparametric, ordered-response model. The proposed model explicitly takes conflicts of interest into account and allows the ratings to depend flexibly on risk attributes through a semiparametric...

This paper develops a semiparametric, ordered-response model of credit rating in which ratings are equilibrium outcomes of a stylized cheap-talk game. The proposed model allows the choice probability to be an unknown function of multiple indices permitting flexible interaction, non-monotonicity,...

This paper tests whether intergenerational transfers are given out of altruism or part of an exchange. We uniquely draw a distinction between the transfer motives in a semiparametric, two-part model. Compared to models employed by extant studies, this approach makes less parametric assumption,...