Read more
This book explores how countries' political and policy choices affect the credit ratings that they receive. The authors use statistical analysis of ratings, interviews with sovereign rating analysts, and a close reading of official communications of rating agencies to show that ratings penalize center-left governments and policies.
List of contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of figures
- Abbreviations
- 1: The puzzle: How do sovereign ratings react to politics and policy?
- 2: The business: Why do ratings incorporate politics and policy?
- 3: The score: How do rating correlate with politics and policy?
- 4: The frame: How do rating analysts rationalize their approach to politics and policy?
- 5: The narrative: How rating reports explain specific rating decisions in Denmark, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom
- 6: The upshot: Ratings as a neglected force in global governance
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Zsófia Barta is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University at Albany, having previous held positions at Central European University, Harvard University, and the European University Institute. Her research focuses on the politics of public debt, covering diverse aspects of public finances from societal conflicts surrounding austerity to the influence of the markets for government debt on policy choice.
Alison Johnston is Associate Professor in Public Policy and the current holder of the Ulysses G. Dubach Chair in Political Science at Oregon State University. Her research lies at the intersection of international and comparative political economy, with a focus on the political economy of comparative capitalism and European monetary integration, growth models, housing markets and household debt, sovereign credit ratings, and general strikes. She is currently the lead editor of the Review of International Political Economy.
Summary
This book explores how countries' political and policy choices affect the credit ratings that they receive. The authors use statistical analysis of ratings, interviews with sovereign rating analysts, and a close reading of official communications of rating agencies to show that ratings penalize center-left governments and policies.
Additional text
Rating Politics examines an important actor in global finance-credit ratings agencies. Although these agencies are private actors, they perform governance functions via their assessment of sovereigns' policies and political institutions. Barta and Johnston focus on how the logic of the ratings industry, and especially agencies' concern about their reputations, affects their assessments of governments. Focusing on wealthy democracies, the book uses interviews, rating agency reports, and statistical analyses to detail the ways in which rating agency practices affect the cost of sovereign finance. This book will be of interest to those who study sovereign finance, the governance of international capital markets, and the interaction between national welfare state policies and the global economy.
