Credit Rating and Capital Structure: Evidence from Latin America

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the impact of reclassifications trends in credit rating decisions in capital structure of listed non-financial companies in Latin America. To verify both the existence of this association were employed data belonging to all non-financial companies listed in Latin America, possessing ratings issued by the three major international ratings agencies international (i.e. Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch) in January, 2010. When considering data for the period 2001-2010, through analysis of panel data, the main results suggest that the reclassifications of ratings seem have no informational content to the capital structure decisions of firms. However, some results indicate that companies classified in the worst levels of risk, and which are on the verge of the rating reclassifications, tend to use more debt than other companies, suggesting the existence of market timing.

Keywords

• Credit Rating
• Capital Structure
• Generalized Method of Moments