Rating Agency Actions and the Pricing of Debt and Equity of European Banks: What Can we Infer About Private Sector Monitoring of Bank Soundness?
Reint E. Gropp, A. J. Richards
Economic Notes,
No. 3,
2001
Abstract
The recent consultative papers by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has raised the possibility of an explicit role for external rating agencies in the assessment of the credit risk of banks’ assets, including interbank claims. Any judgement on the merits of this proposal calls for an assessment of the information contained in credit ratings and its relationship to other publicly available information on the financial health of banks and borrowers. We assess this issue via an event study of rating change announcements by leading international rating agencies, focusing on rating changes for European banks for which data on bond and equity prices are available. We find little evidence of announcement effects on bond prices, which may reflect the lack of liquidity in bond markets in Europe during much of our sample period. For equity prices, we find strong effects of ratings changes, although some of our results may suffer from contamination by contemporaneous news events. We also test for pre-announcement and post-announcement effects, but find little evidence of either. Overall, our results suggest that ratings agencies may perform a useful role in summarizing and obtaining non-public information on banks and that monitoring of banks’ risk through bond holders appears to be relatively limited in Europe. The relatively weak monitoring by bondholders casts some doubt on the effectiveness of a subordinated debt requirement as a supervisory tool in the European context, at least until bond markets are more developed.
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A glimpse on sectoral convergence of productivity levels
Gerald Müller
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 133,
2001
Abstract
This paper examines the presence of sectoral convergence of labor productivity between 14 OECD countries. Using the OECD International Sectoral Data Base (ISDB), the paper looks at the developments within 12 distinct sectors during the period 1970-1995. The change of the coefficients of variance suggests that there is strong sectoral convergence within most service sectors while the evidence of convergence for Manufacturing as well as for Communication is rather weak. These findings are in line with most studies undertaken on this subject so far. It is concluded that economic theories at hand to explain growth and convergence (or divergence respectively) are of different importance for the sectors concerned. While models of the New Growth Theory seemed to be useful to explain growth mechanisms within Manufacturing and Communication, traditional models seemed to apply to most other sectors.
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EU integration and development - Prospects of CEECs - The productivity-gap and technological structural change
Johannes Stephan
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 112,
2000
Abstract
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Labor Market Analysis and Public Policy: The Case of Morocco
Guillermo Hakim, Julia Lane, Javier Miranda
World Bank Economic Review,
No. 3,
1999
Abstract
This article uses detailed industry and household data to understand why Morocco's labor market performed poorly in 1985–95. The data indicate that marked structural changes and weak demand in the product market were responsible. This article makes two contributions to the literature. The first is specific: it underscores that the demand for labor is a derived demand and that the performance of the product market is an important determinant of the performance of the labor market. The second is more general: it demonstrates that this kind of microeconomic analysis, using data sets that are often available in developing countries, can inform policy design.
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East German craft business: High construction industry demand shaped development
Siegfried Beer
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 12,
1997
Abstract
Der Beitrag behandelt ausgewählte Fragen der Entwicklung des Handwerks in den neuen Bundesländern. Dazu wurden u. a. die Ergebnisse der Handwerkszählung 1995 ausgewertet. Kernpunkte des Beitrags sind der Einfluss der Baunachfrage auf die Entwicklung des Handwerks und ein Vergleich des erreichten Transformationsstandes (im Unternehmensbesatz, den Beschäftigungs- und Umsatzstrukturen sowie in der Produktivität) zum Handwerk in Westdeutschland.
Diese und weitere Untersuchungsergebnisse werden ausführlicher in der IWH-Forschungsreihe 5/1997 dargestellt.
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East German craft business: High construction industry demand shaped development
Siegfried Beer
Forschungsreihe,
No. 5,
1997
Abstract
Der Beitrag behandelt ausgewählte Fragen der Entwicklung des Handwerks in den neuen Bundesländern. Dazu wurden u. a. die Ergebnisse der Handwerkszählung 1995 ausgewertet. Kernpunkte des Beitrags sind der Einfluss der Baunachfrage auf die Entwicklung des Handwerks und ein Vergleich des erreichten Transformationsstandes zum Handwerk in Westdeutschland. In dem Zusammenhang wird auf die Produktivitätssituation, Gründe für die Rückstände und auf die Personalkostenproblematik eingegangen.
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Macroeconomic and corporate adjustment progress in East Germany
Forschungsreihe,
No. 2,
1997
Abstract
Schwerpunkt des 15. Berichtes sind eine Bewertung der Förderpolitik für die neuen Bundesländer und Vorschläge für die Neugestaltung des Förderinstrumentariums ab 1999. Hierzu wurde zunächst die Wirkung einzelner Förderprogramme, gemessen an Vorstellungen darüber, wie eine Wirtschaftsförderung für Ostdeutschland auszugestalten ist, bis zum Jahr 1996 eingeschätzt. Auf der Grundlage einer Gesamtbeurteilung der bisherigen Förderpolitik werden Grundsätze, Bedingungen und Leitlinien für die Fortführung der Wirtschaftsförderung dargestellt.
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