After the Recalibration: Has Moody's Credit Rating Model Changed?

This paper analyzes the recalibration of municipal government credit ratings by Moody's Investors Service. The authors empirically test whether or not Moody's changed its ratings model for state governments after the recalibration. They find significant change, coupled with some stability, in the post-recalibration ratings' model and find that the coefficients of several government financial variables, especially revenue variables, were modified after the recalibration.