We investigate how shocks to the reputation of credit rating agencies and the subsequent introduction of stricter regulation affect investors’ reaction to rating signals. We focus on three major episodes of reputational distress: the Enron/WorldCom scandals, the subprime crisis and the lawsuit...

We investigate how shocks to the reputation of credit rating agencies and the subsequent introduction of stricter regulation affect investors' reaction to rating signals. We focus on three major episodes of reputational distress: The Enron/WorldCom scandals, the subprime crisis and the lawsuit...

High predictability of returns on housing suggests pervasive irrationality on the part of market participants. In this paper, we show that with small transactions costs, returns may remain highly predictable even if the market contains substantial numbers of risk neutral, rational speculators....