Do sovereign credit ratings matter? The relationship between ratings and capital flows before and after the great recession

We examine the relationship between sovereign credit ratings and international equity and bond inflows pre- and post-Great Recession using 1996-2016 annual data for 53 countries. The ratings are statistically significant for both equity and debt inflows in the full sample. After splitting the data into pre- and post-crisis periods, we find that ratings go from being significant in the 1996-2007 subsample to insignificant in the 2010-2016 period. These results support the hypothesis that adverse reputational effects weakened the value of rating agencies in investors' decision-making process after the Great Recession.