一、主题：Boosted Credit Ratings in China: The Effects of Credit Enhancement on Bond Pricing

二、主讲人： 高昊宇，中国人民大学副教授，中国人民大学“杰出学者”青年学者，第5届中国科协“青年人才托举工程”入选人。他的论文已经发表或接受发表在Review of Financial Studies (RFS), Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA)、《金融研究》和《中国管理科学》等国内外金融管理领域顶级刊物。主持一项国家自然科学基金项目，参与多项国家自然科学基金重点课题。

三、时间：2020年6月10日星期三，10:00 -11:30
四、地点：腾讯会议【具体房间临时通知】
五、主持人：黄瑜琴副教授，应用金融系主任  

Abstract: Using a comprehensive dataset of 7,626 enterprise bonds and corporate bonds issued between January 2009 and December 2019 in China, we find that 25.2% of bonds receive boosted credit ratings at issuance; among them 96.6% used credit enhancement. This paper empirically studies whether and how the credit enhancement structure in bond contracts affects bond pricing. First, our main findings show that the usage of credit enhancement at issuance can effectively help lower financing costs. Second, we use the propensity score matching procedure and instrumental variable analysis to control for the potential endogeneity of the usage of credit enhancement. Third, we find that the magnitude of cost reduction is larger for riskier firms, and when credit enhancement is provided by more reliable guarantors, which support the risk-sharing mechanism. The information production mechanism is also discussed and excluded. Last, we show that bond investors unsurprisingly discount bonds with boosted credit ratings.