This paper investigates the role of a firm's information visibility in the assessment of its default risk. We use press coverage to proxy for firm visibility and find that highly visible firms generally have better credit ratings. The positive association between firm visibility and credit ratings arises because (1) press coverage facilitates the generation and dissemination of firm-specific information to market participants and (2) it disciplines the activities of managers and large shareholders. This positive association becomes stronger for firms with more severe information asymmetry or weaker alternative monitoring systems. Our findings contribute to the accounting literature by providing new evidence on the influence of firm visibility in the debt market.

本文研究了企业信息可视性在评估其违约风险中的作用。我们使用新闻报道来代表公司的知名度，并且发现知名度较高的公司通常具有更好的信用等级。公司知名度和信用评级之间的正相关关系是由于（1）新闻报道促进了公司特定信息的生成和向市场参与者的传播，以及（2）规范了经理和大股东的行为。对于信息不对称更为严重的公司或替代性监控系统较弱的公司，这种正向联系会变得更强。我们的发现通过提供关于公司在债务市场中知名度的影响的新证据，为会计文献做出了贡献。