... market sentiments ten year US Treasury Bills as benchmark US Treasury Bills as benchmark interest rates sovereign credit ratings Moody’s Standard and Poor’s Fitch bond spreads revenue flexibility expenditure flexibility monetary flexibility governance effectiveness panel regression analysis...

... Commission, the European Central Bank, domestic central banks, ministries, and think tanks. ¹⁵ Standard and Poor’s is not a research institution. A small team of two sovereign analysts is working on each case. Therefore, they are bound to take local and expert views on board. ¹⁶...

... of alternatives to credit ratings limits to risk taking regulators third party reference points ratings as international financial institutions global financial markets orthodoxies policy scripts sovereign credit ratings Moody’s Standard and Poor’s Fitch infrastructural power structural power global...

...To Andor and Jordan List of tables and figures List of tables 1.1. Rating scales used by Fitch, Moody s, and Standard and Poor s 4.A1. Interviews by agency and date 5.1. Case selection criteria 9 123 133 List of figures 3.1. Credit ratings of the Big Three, 1995 2016 3.2. Predicted effect...

... Big Three rating agencies Cyprus debt crises European sovereign debt crises 2009–2011 Fitch gatekeeping function of ratings Greece interest rates Ireland Italy Moody’s Portugal power of rating agencies Russian financial crisis 1998 Spain Standard and Poor’s ability to pay sovereign...

... reference points ratings as uncertainty ability to pay Big Three rating agencies definition of credit ratings Fitch history of ratings information asymmetry in global markets limits to risk taking regulators Standard and Poor’s third party experts rating agencies as bond issuers certification...

... upgrades European Commission neoliberal paradigm OECD Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development epistemic communities downgrades in ratings governance effectiveness sovereign credit ratings Moody’s Standard and Poor’s Fitch rating reports discourse analysis United Kingdom Germany...