The credit rating industry is a global industry with only three major actors, Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings. The “big three” control the majority of the credit rating market and have powers, in the form of credit rating issuances, which they use to influence financial markets worldwide. Ever since their involvement in the fall of corporate giants in early 2000 and the financial crisis of 2008, the power and influence of the credit rating agencies, as well as questions regarding conflict of interest and transparency, have been a hot topic of debate.   The impact of credit ratings can be seen across multiple markets; however the focus of this study is on the stock market where every day investors can be affected. As Moody’s is one of the three largest CRAs in the world and is present worldwide, we apply their credit ratings when investigating the impact. Due to different characteristics of large and small markets, and since the US market is well studied; this study is conducted on the Swedish market. Thus, the aim of our study is to investigate the impact credit ratings from Moody’s have on the Swedish stock market and also, give a perspective on how the financial crisis of 2008 influences the potential impact.   We apply an event study method to isolate the events and measure the abnormal returns. To estimate the expected market return we use the market model on estimation periods of 60 to 120 days. The sample contains 71 individual credit rating changes from 17 firms listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and considers all uncontaminated credit rating changes issued by Moody’s on the Swedish market during the time period of 1990 to 2012.   Empirical evidence showed that the Swedish stock market is susceptible to Moody’s negative credit ratings but almost unaffected by the positive credit ratings. These findings are in line with previous research of Holthausen & Leftwich (1986) amongst others. Still, the effects discovered were not prolonged and no clear difference in impact was found after 2008.

Bakgrund: Ett osäkert världsläge har lett till högre räntenivåer och många svenska företag hotas med sänkta kreditbetyg. Tidigare forskning har kunnat påvisa att företags aktiekurser påverkas signifikant av kreditbetygsförändringar. Den svenska aktiemarknaden har inte studerats i någon större utsträckning, varpå det finns ett behov av den aktuella studien. Syfte: Studiens primära syfte är att undersöka om kreditbetygshändelser publicerade av Moody's leder till en onormal aktiekursutveckling. Studien ämnar sekundärt att belysa hur de undersökta händelserna förhåller sig till en större population av svenska börsbolag som erhållit en offentlig kreditbetygshändelse. Teori: Studiens frågeställningar och hypoteser grundas i den effektiva marknadshypotesen som formulerats av Fama (1970:1991). Metod: Den genomförda studien är en totalundersökning av kreditbetygshändelser som publicerats av Moody's mellan 10/4 2005 - 10/4 2023, och som berör bolag noterade på OMXS Large och Mid Cap. En eventstudie genomfördes där onormal avkastning beräknades utifrån market model. Onormal avkastning ses som differensen mellan den förväntade och den observerade avkastningen under eventfönstret. Därtill gjordes statistiska prövningar för att testa totalundersökningens generaliserbarhet. Resultat: Totalundersökningen berör 116 observationer fördelat på 22 bolag. Uppgraderat och nedgraderat kreditbetyg genererade en negativ onormal avkastning där resultatet för det uppgraderade kreditbetyget skiljer sig från de deducerade hypoteserna. För ett bekräftat kreditbetyg med positiv, negativ och stabil framtidsprognos uppmättes positiv onormal avkastning där den stabila framtidsprognosen hade högst onormal avkastning. Slutsatser: Resultaten av studien visade, likt tidigare forskning, en viss motstridighet. Stabila framtidsprognosers påverkan på aktiekursen är något som inte påtalats inom tidigare forskning, varpå den aktuella studien fyller ett forskningsgap. Den teoretiska slutsatsen är att den svenska aktiemarknaden uppvisat tendenser av den semi-starka formen av marknadseffektivitet under undersökningsperioden. Däremot kan resultatet endast hänföras till den undersökta populationen och kan inte generaliseras till alla svenska börbolag som erhållit en offentlig kreditbetygshändelse. / Background: The uncertain worldwide situation has led to higher interest rates and many Swedish companies are threatened with lowered credit ratings. Previous research shows that companies' stock prices are significantly affected by credit rating changes. The Swedish stock market has not been studied to any great extent, whereby there is need for the current study. Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to investigate whether credit rating actions published by Moody's lead to abnormal returns. The study's secondary purpose is to shed lighet on how the investigated events relate to a larger population of Swedish listed companies that have received a public credit rating action. Theory: The study's research questions and hypotheses are based on the efficient market hypothesis formulated by Fama (1970:1991). Method: The performed studi is a census survey of credit rating actions published by Moody's between 10/4 2005 - 10/4 2023, and which concerned companies listed on the OMXS Large or Mid Cap. An event study was carried out where abnormal returns were calculated based on the market model. Abnormal returns are seen as the difference between expected and observed returns during the event window. In addition, statistical tests were carried out to test the generalizability of the census survey. Results: The census survey concerns a total of 116 observations spread over 22 companies. Upgraded and downgraded credit ratings generated at negative abnormal return where the performance of the upgraded credit ratings differs from the deduced hypotheses. For a confirmed rating with a positive, negative and stable forecast, positive abnormal returns were measured where the stable forecasts had the highest abnormal returns. Conclusions: The results of the study showed, like previous research, a certain contradiction. The impact of stable forecasts on stock prices is something that has not been mentiones in previous research, thus the current study fills this research gap. The theoretical conclusion is that the Swedish stock market showed tendencies of the semi-strong form of market efficiency during the investigated period. However, the results can only be attributed to the investigated population and cannot be generalized to all Swedish listed companies that receive a public credit rating action.

Ce mémoire traite des diverses agences de notation et de l'importance qu'elles accordent aux fluctuations du nationalisme dans l'émission des cotes de crédit du Québec de 1970 à 2012. Plus spécifiquement, il a pour objectif de traiter de la situation des finances publiques du Québec, de démystifier le rôle de la notation financière et de déterminer si le nationalisme québécois est une variable spécifique prépondérante dans le processus d'évaluation des agences de notation. L'analyse statistique occupe une portion importante de la démonstration. Ce faisant, il est possible d'établir des modèles, voire des préférences méthodologiques, pour chacune des agences de notation à l'étude dans ce document. Les résultats de cette recherche démontrent que le nationalisme québécois n'est pas une variable spécifique prépondérante dans l'évaluation des agences de notation à l'endroit du Québec mais que ce sont plutôt les facteurs institutionnels et fiscaux qui vont primer lors de l'émission des cotes de crédit.

This thesis establishes an information system which combines three credit risk models through Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). The system requires the bank user inputting finance-related data and selecting options to generate a series of credit risk related results, including the probabilities of default, the recovery rates, the expected market value of assets, the volatilities of the expected market value of assets, the default points, the default distances, and four indexes from principal components analyses. In addition to exhibiting the numerical results, graphical results are also available for the user. Three credit risk models joining this system are the Moody¡¦s KMV Model with Default Point Modified, the Risk-Neutral Probability Measure Model, and the Time-Varying Jointly Estimated Model. Several previous researches have demonstrated the validity of these credit risk models, hence the purpose of this study is not to examine the practicability of these models, but to see if these models are capable of connecting each other effectively and eventually establishing a process to evaluate the credit risk of enterprises and industries by the use of testing samples. Testing samples are data from Taiwan Small and Medium Enterprise Credit Guarantee Fund. The finance-related data includes the loan amounts, the book value of assets, the data used to calculate the default point threshold (such as the short-term debt and the long-term debt), and the financial ratios with regard to growth ability (such as the revenue growth rate and the profit growth rate before tax), operation ability (such as the accounts receivable turnover rate and the inventory turnover rate), liability-paying ability (such as the current ratio and the debt ratio), and profitability (such as the return on assets and the return on equity). In addition to inputting the finance-related data, the system also require the user selecting the industrial category, the default point threshold, the way data being weighted, the data period, and the borrowing rates from the option page for every enterprise in order to acquire the results. Among the computing process, user is required to select weighted average method, either weighted by loan amounts or weighted by market value of assets, to obtain ¡§the weighted average probability of default of the industry¡¨ and ¡§the weighted average recovery rate of the industry¡¨ which are both used by the Time-Varying Jointly Estimated Model. This study also makes use of quartiles to simulate the situation when the user is near the bottom and top of the business cycle. Furthermore, the ¡§Supremum Strategy¡¨ and the ¡§Infimum Strategy¡¨ are added to this study to let the user realize the best condition and the worse condition of the ¡§Time-Varying Industrial Marginal Probabilities of Default¡¨.

The cooling systems in a gas turbine are especially important as the turbine blades and vanes are exposed to extreme temperatures. The relatively cool air is extracted from the compressors and fed to the turbines to cool the turbine blades. The manufacturing of these blades and channels used to cool is especially complicated using conventional manufacturing techniques. Additive Manufacturing (AM) gives the designer much more freedom to design core components. The AM technique currently explored is the Selective Laser Melting process (SLM). The surface area is exposed to the cooling airflow by using lattice structures which can be manufactured at relative ease using AM. This thesis will provide some insights into using AM parts for the cooling, by analyzing the pressure drop that could be expected from superalloys that are manufactured using AM. The surface roughness is an inherent property of the AM components therefore it would be interesting to analyze a turbulent flow through AM channels (CM247LC and INCONEL 939). The thesis deals with turbulent flows as the airflow used for cooling in the gas turbine is most likely turbulent.  The friction factor (Darcy–Weisbach friction factor) is used to relate the impact of the surface roughness to the pressure drop. The results from the previous experiments are contrasted as the flow in the previous experiments was assumed to be fully developed but in reality, it was not. And the accuracy of the previous results to the actual fully developed flow will shed some light on the feasibility of the flow analysis techniques used in the previous experiments. It is found that the previous experimental results for the CM247LC TPs have good agreement with current experimental results but INCONEL 939 exhibits significant deviation. The possible reasons for the deviations are directly linked to the assumptions made to calculate the minor losses. The Test Pieces (TP) analyzed in this thesis have varying length to diameter (L/D) ratios and the impact of the variation of different L/D ratios is analyzed along with varying pressure ratios. Where the flow resistance increases with an increase in L/D and pressure ratio. The technique to accommodate the compressibility of the airflow is also explored in this thesis. Finally, reasons for the manifestation of anomalies are discussed. The probability of the compressibility effects of the airflow on the anomalies was found to be quite high, and concluding remarks are provided.

Jazz music is transmitted by aural and oral means. As recording and broadcast mediums became increasingly ubiquitous, starting in the mid twentieth-century, an ever greater proportion of jazz’s aural transmission would be mediated by these developing technologies. Many commentators address sound’s mediation from one state to another by identifying the resulting recording as an object. This object transcends temporal and spacial proximity, possessing inherent authority with implications for authorship, related work-concepts, and even issues of cultural assimilation. From a perspective informed by writings in musicology, philosophy, and sound studies, I examine recorded jazz music from the twentieth-century. I begin by positioning the history of jazz music in relation to the emergence of recording technologies to establish recordings as authoritative texts. I then translate (by transcription) primarily non-literate jazz recordings into the primarily literate discourse of musicology. In the course of examining music by James Moody, Eddie Jefferson, Bud Powell, Chick Corea, and others, I conclude that they all exemplify musical intertextuality. In some cases, technological mediation connects the texts. I then turn to an examination of recordings specifically. I begin by questioning musical notation as an adequate description of sound and move to developing a broader analytical framework. This thesis culminates with a comparison of Bud Powell’s 1949 recording of Bouncin’ With Bud and Chick Corea’s 1997 recording. Using the framework mentioned, disparate potentialities afforded by each recording’s mediation are connected to musical characteristics. / Graduate