Rating Africa: The Economic and Political Content of Risk Indicators

Abstract

This chapter presents results from our ongoing project for evaluating the commercially available, developing-country creditworthiness indicators. Commercial creditworthiness ratings have long been used for the measurement of corporate risk. More recently, country credit ratings compiled by cofile:///Users/ygtaydmr/Downloads/S0305750X98000497.bibmmercial sources have attempted to estimate country-specific risks, particularly the probability that a country will default on its debt servicing obligations. This default risk is measured using country-specific information about political and economic developments that have been identified in theoretical analyses as influencing the ability and willingness to service external debt obligation.