기업지배구조 수준이 회사채 신용평가에 미치는 영향

This paper aims to contribute to corporate governance and/or bond ratings research by analyzing the impact of corporate governance on bond ratings with respect to creditors. The main results are as follows. First, firms with good governance are more likely to have higher levels of bond ratings and a higher possibility of obtaining investment-grade bond ratings. The results suggest that an improved corporate governance mechanism may positively affect a firm’s capability for debt repayment. This study also provides empirical evidence that improving governance helps increase bond ratings by reducing creditors’ risk and signaling the firm’s willingness to respect creditors’ rights. Second, we find that the relationship between corporate governance and bond ratings is stronger for small firms than for large firms, implying that credit rating agencies might be more interested in governance systems for small firms due to their serious (inherent) information asymmetry and higher risk. The findings are robust after controlling for various firm characteristics and mitigating the endogeneity issue. This study contributes to the corporate governance literature by providing evidence that corporate governance can be used as an important and useful source of information for creditors and as a key determinant of credit evaluation. Furthermore, these results show that credit rating agencies may improve the accuracy and/or credibility of bond ratings by using information on corporate governance.