Fixed Income - value weighted index and debt

why do we say that value-weighted indexes are tilted toward issuers with higher levels of debt compared to equally weighted index? Why would companies with more debt be assigned more weighting in a value index?

When they say it’s “value-weighted”, to what value are they referring?

it just tells us the below

All three contain similar mixtures of corporate and government debt with credit rating weightings that are essentially the same as the info of the three indexes and how two of them are value-weighted and one s equally weighted

What do you imagine that “value-weighted” means?

If you have no idea, look in the curriculum. I’d start in volume 3, reading 11, §3.2, p. 243. (Note that at this stage you should be able to find this information yourself.)