Purpose: Study the impact of the heterogeneity of institutional investors, evident in their investment horizon, on firm credit ratings.Methodology/Approach: Use a large sample of U.S. firms over the period 1985 to 2006 (20,670 U.S. firm-year observations) to empirically investigate the...

We investigate ratings quality across uncertain and normal times proxied by variations in economic policy uncertainty. We find that increased policy uncertainty is associated with weaker rating standards. This finding is unrelated to variations in macroeconomic conditions and holds when we use...

Purpose – Study the impact of the heterogeneity of institutional investors, evident in their investment horizon, on firm credit ratings. Methodology/approach – Use a large sample of U.S. firms over the period from 1985 to 2006 (20,670 U.S. firm-year observations) to empirically investigate...