NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, INC.
SUMMER INSTITUTE 2010
Workshop on the Economics of Credit Rating Agencies
Chester Spatt, Organizer
July 15 and 16, 2010
Royal Sonesta Hotel
Skyline Suite
40 Edwin H. Land Boulevard
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Program
Thursday, July 15:
8:15 am	Coffee and Pastries
8:45 am	Patrick Bolton, Columbia University and NBER
	Xavier Freixas, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
	Joel Shapiro, University of Oxford
	The Credit Ratings Game
	Discussant: Itay Goldstein, University of Pennsylvania
9:35 am	Anand Goel, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
	Anjan Thakor, Washington University in St. Louis
	Credit Ratings and Litigation Risk
	Discussant: Roberta Romano, Yale University and NBER
10:25 am	Break
10:45 am	Bo Becker, Harvard University and NBER
	Todd Milbourn, Washington University in St. Louis
	How did increased competition affect credit ratings?
	Discussant: Burton Hollifield, Carnegie Mellon University
11:35 am	Neil Doherty, University of Pennsylvania
	Anastasia Kartasheva, University of Pennsylvania
	Richard Phillips, Georgia State University
	Information Effect of Entry into Credit Ratings Market: The Case of Insurers' Ratings
	Discussant: Christine Parlour, UC, Berkeley
12:25 pm	Lunch
1:15 pm	Sergey Chernenko, Harvard University
	Adi Sunderam, Harvard University
	The Real Consequences of Market Segmentation
	Discussant: Andrew Ellul, Indiana University
2:05 pm	Zhihua Chen, University of Neuchâtel, Shanghai University, and Swiss Finance Institute
	Aziz Lookman, Moody's Investors Service
	Norman Schürhoff, University of Lausanne, Swiss Finance Institute, and CEPR
	Duane Seppi, Carnegie Mellon University
	Why Ratings Matter: Evidence from Lehman’s Index Rating Rule Change
	Discussant: Jean Helwege, University of South Carolina
2:55 pm	Break
3:10 pm	Dion Bongaerts, University of Amsterdam
	K. J. Martijn Cremers, Yale University
	William Goetzmann, Yale University and NBER
	Tiebreaker: Certification and Multiple Credit Ratings
	Discussant: Michael Brennan, UC, Los Angeles
4:00 pm	Break
4:15 pm	Panel Discussion - The Credit Rating Agency Problem
	Panelists:
	Richard Cantor, Moody's Investors Service
	Richard Portes, London Business School and NBER
	Stephen Ross, MIT and NBER
	Jonathan Sokobin, Securities and Exchange Commission
	Lawrence White, New York University
	Moderator: Chester Spatt, Carnegie Mellon University and NBER
5:45 pm	Discussion of Potential Creation of Research Network
6:00 pm	Adjourn
6:45 pm	Reception and Dinner – Riverfront Room
	Speaker - Harvey Pitt, Kalorama Partners
Friday, July 16:
8:15 am	Coffee and Pastries
8:45 am	John Griffin, University of Texas at Austin
	Dragon Yongjun Tang, University of Hong Kong
	Did Subjectivity Play a Role in CDO Credit Ratings?
	Discussant: Nancy Wallace, UC, Berkeley
9:35 am	Adam Ashcraft, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
	Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Harvard University
	James Vickery, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
	MBS Ratings and the Mortgage Credit Boom
	Discussant: Krishna Ramaswamy, University of Pennsylvania
10:25 am	Break
10:45 am	Marco Pagano, University of Naples Federico II
	Paolo Volpin, London Business School
	Securitization, Transparency and Liquidity
	Discussant: Timothy Riddiough, University of Wisconsin
11:35 am	Pepa Kraft, University of Chicago
	Do Rating Agencies Cater? Evidence from Rating-Based Contracts
	Discussant: Robert Dammon, Carnegie Mellon University
12:25 pm	Lunch
1:15 pm	Christian Opp, University of Pennsylvania
	Marcus Opp, UC, Berkeley
	Milton Harris, University of Chicago
	Rating Agencies in the Face of Regulation
	Discussant: Paolo Fulghieri, University of North Carolina
2:05 pm	Francesco Sangiorgi, Stockholm School of Economics
	Chester Spatt, Carnegie Mellon University and NBER
	Equilibrium Credit Ratings and Policy
	Discussant: Anat Admati, Stanford University
2:55 pm	Break
3:10 pm	Seung Hun Han, KAIST
	Michael Pagano, Villanova University
	Yoon Shin, Loyola University of Maryland
	Rating Agency Reputation, the Global Financial Crisis, and the Cost of Debt
	Discussant: Bruce Lehmann, UC, San Diego and NBER
4:00 pm	Adjourn