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Legal Air Cover

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Bolton
  • Ugo Panizza
  • Mitu Gulati

Abstract

The economic harm being caused by the novel coronavirus may soon result in multiple sovereign debtors moving into default territory, but the existing playbook for dealing with multi-sovereign emerging market debt crises is blank. Currently, the only way to deal with a debt crisis is to carry out protracted country-by-country and contract-by-contract negotiated workouts. Expert groups are attempting to design a mechanism to run multiple sovereign debt workouts simultaneously but any design will take time to configure and get international buy-in. This article sets forth some options to provide temporary legal protection to debtor countries while they are diverting resources to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the notion of ‘legal air cover’. The options we propose involve ex-post state intervention in debt contracts and come with risks, but we show that in the case of Greece, where such an intervention was necessary in 2012, there were no negative spillovers on periphery eurozone debt markets associated with the Greek ex-post modification of contract terms.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Bolton & Ugo Panizza & Mitu Gulati, 2021. "Legal Air Cover," Journal of Financial Regulation, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 189-216.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:refreg:v:7:y:2021:i:2:p:189-216.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jfr/fjab004
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    Cited by:

    1. Silvia Marchesi & Tania Masi & Pietro Bomprezzi, 2021. "Is to Forgive to Forget? Sovereign Risk in the Aftermath of a Default," Development Working Papers 475, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    2. Panizza, Ugo & Bolton, Patrick & Gulati, Mitu, 2022. "Sovereign Debt Puzzles," CEPR Discussion Papers 17742, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    sovereign debt; sudden stop; Covid-19;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F34 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Lending and Debt Problems
    • F51 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Conflicts; Negotiations; Sanctions

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