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When the State is Untrustworthy: Public Finance and Private Banking in Porfirian Mexico

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Author Info
Noel Maurer () (Centro de Investigacion Economica (CIE), Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM))
Andrei Gomberg () (Centro de Investigacion Economica (CIE), Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM))

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Abstract

All sovereign governments face a commitment problem: how can they promise to honor their own agreements? The standard solutions involve reputation or political institutions capable of tying the hands of the government. Mexico's government in the 1880s used neither solution. It compensated its creditors by enabling them to extract rents from the rest of the economy. These rents came through special privileges over banking services and the right to administer federal taxes. Returns were extremely high: as long as creditors believed that the government would refrain from confiscating all their assets (let alone repaying their debts) less than twice a decade, they would break even.

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File URL: http://ftp.itam.mx/pub/academico/inves/gomberg/04-02.pdf
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File Function: First version, 2004
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM in its series Working Papers with number 0402.

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Length: 29 pages
Date of creation: Feb 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:cie:wpaper:0402

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  1. Eaton, Jonathan & Gersovitz, Mark & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1986. "The pure theory of country risk," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 481-513, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
    • Jonathan Eaton & Mark Gersovitz & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1986. "The Pure Theory of Country Risk," NBER Working Papers 1894, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    • Jonathan Eaton & Mark Gersovitz & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1991. "The Pure Theory of Country Risk," NBER Chapters, in: International Volatility and Economic Growth: The First Ten Years of The International Seminar on Macroeconomics, pages 391-435 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  2. Michael D. Bordo & Carlos A. Vegh, 1998. "What If Alexander Hamilton Had Been Argentinean? A Comparison of the Early Monetary Experiences of Argentina and the United States," NBER Working Papers 6862, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. De Long, J Bradford & Shleifer, Andrei, 1993. "Princes and Merchants: European City Growth before the Industrial Revolution," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(2), pages 671-702, October.
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  4. Eugene White, 2001. "France's Slow Transition from Privatized to Government-Administered Tax Collection: Tax Farming in the Eighteenth Century," Departmental Working Papers 200116, Rutgers University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  5. Bulow, Jeremy & Rogoff, Kenneth, 1989. "A Constant Recontracting Model of Sovereign Debt," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(1), pages 155-78, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. North, Douglass C, 1991. "Institutions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 97-112, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Noel Maurer & Stephen Haber, 2007. "Related Lending: Manifest Looting or Good Governance? Lessons from the Economic History of Mexico," NBER Chapters, in: The Decline of Latin American Economies: Growth, Institutions, and Crises, pages 213-242 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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