Credit Ratings and Stock Liquidity

We analyze contemporaneous and predictive relations betweencredit ratings and measures of equity market liquidity and findthat common measures of adverse selection, which reflect a portionof the uncertainty about future firm value, are larger whencredit ratings are poorer. We also show that future rating changescan be predicted using current levels of adverse selection.Collectively, our results validate widely used microstructuremeasures of adverse selection and offer new insights into thevalue of credit ratings and the specific nature of the informationthey contain.