Fiscal uncertainty and sovereign credit risk

This doctoral thesis studies sovereign credit risk during periods of uncertainty about the state of a government's fiscal position. A new measure of fiscal uncertainty is introduced, based on the disagreement in official forecasts of the public budget deficit, and forecast revisions to approxim...

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Main Author: Hantzsche, Arno
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49976/
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author Hantzsche, Arno
author_facet Hantzsche, Arno
author_sort Hantzsche, Arno
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This doctoral thesis studies sovereign credit risk during periods of uncertainty about the state of a government's fiscal position. A new measure of fiscal uncertainty is introduced, based on the disagreement in official forecasts of the public budget deficit, and forecast revisions to approximate common uncertainty shocks. It is shown that in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, fiscal uncertainty increased substantially in advanced economies. The effects of fiscal uncertainty are largely unknown, in particular in the context of sovereign credit risk. To estimate the response of sovereign credit ratings to fiscal uncertainty, a new empirical framework is developed for the analysis of rating determinants. Rating transition is modelled as the joint outcome of two processes, which determine the frequency of rating changes, and their direction. This thesis finds that fiscal uncertainty is perceived a credit risk by rating agencies and increases the probability of a rating downgrade. Fiscal uncertainty also affects the attention paid to sovereign ratings. An event study analysis shows that the attention to rating announcements increases, the more noisy publicly available information about fiscal outcomes is.
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spelling nottingham-499762025-02-28T12:02:45Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49976/ Fiscal uncertainty and sovereign credit risk Hantzsche, Arno This doctoral thesis studies sovereign credit risk during periods of uncertainty about the state of a government's fiscal position. A new measure of fiscal uncertainty is introduced, based on the disagreement in official forecasts of the public budget deficit, and forecast revisions to approximate common uncertainty shocks. It is shown that in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, fiscal uncertainty increased substantially in advanced economies. The effects of fiscal uncertainty are largely unknown, in particular in the context of sovereign credit risk. To estimate the response of sovereign credit ratings to fiscal uncertainty, a new empirical framework is developed for the analysis of rating determinants. Rating transition is modelled as the joint outcome of two processes, which determine the frequency of rating changes, and their direction. This thesis finds that fiscal uncertainty is perceived a credit risk by rating agencies and increases the probability of a rating downgrade. Fiscal uncertainty also affects the attention paid to sovereign ratings. An event study analysis shows that the attention to rating announcements increases, the more noisy publicly available information about fiscal outcomes is. 2018-07-18 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49976/1/Hantzsche%204210891_PhD%20thesis%20Feb%202018.pdf Hantzsche, Arno (2018) Fiscal uncertainty and sovereign credit risk. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. uncertainty fiscal policy sovereign credit ratings event study ordered outcome estimation
spellingShingle uncertainty
fiscal policy
sovereign credit ratings
event study
ordered outcome estimation
Hantzsche, Arno
Fiscal uncertainty and sovereign credit risk
title Fiscal uncertainty and sovereign credit risk
title_full Fiscal uncertainty and sovereign credit risk
title_fullStr Fiscal uncertainty and sovereign credit risk
title_full_unstemmed Fiscal uncertainty and sovereign credit risk
title_short Fiscal uncertainty and sovereign credit risk
title_sort fiscal uncertainty and sovereign credit risk
topic uncertainty
fiscal policy
sovereign credit ratings
event study
ordered outcome estimation
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49976/