The percentage of bondswith ratings equal to or above the sovereign
ceiling increases during the sovereign debt crisis period. Approximately
18% of bonds have at least one quarter when their individual rating is
equal to or above their corresponding country. This is a surprisingly
high number, and indicates that the importance of the sovereign ceiling
has diminished in a period when several countries experienced significant
downgrades of their ratings. We would therefore also expect the
influence of sovereign ratings on corporate ratings to be reduced in
the sovereign debt crisis period as opposed to the financial crisis period.