Restricted by the rolling terrains of mountainous areas in western parts of China, long steep downgrades are very common in mountainous freeways. Influenced by the factors like high altitude, big elevation differences, and the severe weather condition e.g. black ice, heavy snow and thick fog, most long steep downgrades turn to traffic accident prone sites. Moreover, once traffic accident happen...

I examine the corporate bond market reaction to bond rating changes using newly available corporate bond transaction data from the over-the-counter (OTC) market. I document significant price responses to both downgrades and upgrades in the in two-day period surrounding announcements. Since numerous studies find no evidence of a stock price reaction do upgrades, my findings adds to the literatur...

This study examines credit score migration rates of farm businesses. We test whether migration probabilities differ across business cycles. Our results suggest that agricultural credit ratings are more likely to improve during expansions and deteriorate during recessions. We also test whether agricultural credit ratings depend on the previous period migration trends. Our results show that credi...

We study the effect of sovereign credit rating downgrades on firm investment and financial policy. We identify causal effects by exploiting the effect of sovereign downgrades on corporate ratings that is due to sovereign ceiling policies followed by rating agencies. We find that sovereign downgrades lead to greater decreases in investment and leverage of firms that are at the sovereign rating b...

AIMS To evaluate concordance, upgrades and downgrades from biopsy to prostatectomy, and associated clincopathological parameters, using the recently proposed Gleason grade groups/International Society of Urologic Pathology (ISUP) grades. METHODS AND RESULTS We evaluated 2529 patients who underwent biopsy and prostatectomy in our institution from 2005 to 2014. A global grade group (GR)/Gleason...

This paper addresses whether credit rating downgrades feed back on the asset value of the downgraded companies, causing real losses. To investigate this issue we construct a structural credit risk model incorporating ratings and the feedback loss. To estimate the parameters of the model we develop a maximum likelihood estimator using time series of equity prices and credit ratings. Implementing...

There is strong evidence that the interest rates charged by banks on the flow of newly extended Commercial & Industrial (C&I) loans predict future loan performance and CAMEL rating downgrades by bank supervisors. While internal risk ratings have little explanatory power for future loan performance, they do help predict future CAMEL downgrades. These findings suggest that supervisors might consi...