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Bubbles and Self-Enforcing Debt

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Author Info
Christian Hellwig
Guido Lorenzoni

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Abstract

We characterize equilibria with endogenous debt constraints for a general equilibrium economy with limited commitment in which the only consequence of default is losing the ability to borrow in future periods. First, we show that equilibrium debt limits must satisfy a simple condition that allows agents to exactly roll over existing debt period by period. Second, we provide an equivalence result, whereby the resulting set of equilibrium allocations with self-enforcing private debt is equivalent to the allocations that are sustained with unbacked public debt or rational bubbles; for the latter, there exist well known existence and characterization results. In contrast to the classic result by Bulow and Rogoff (AER 1989), positive levels of debt are sustainable in our environment because the interest rate is sufficiently low to provide repayment incentives.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12614.

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Date of creation: Oct 2006
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12614

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D50 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - General
D52 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Incomplete Markets
D53 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Financial Markets
E40 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - General
F34 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Lending and Debt Problems
G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)

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  5. Bulow, J. & Rogoff, K., 1988. "Sovereign Debt: Is To Forgive To Forget?," Papers 411, Stockholm - International Economic Studies.
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  19. Fernando Alvarez & Urban J. Jermann, 2000. "Efficiency, Equilibrium, and Asset Pricing with Risk of Default," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(4), pages 775-798, July.
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  21. repec:att:wimass:198813 is not listed on IDEAS
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  24. Dirk Krueger & Fabrizio Perri, 2006. "Does Income Inequality Lead to Consumption Inequality? Evidence and Theory," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 73(1), pages 163-193, 01. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  25. Thomas, J. P., 1992. "Sovereign debt: Ignorance can be bliss," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 389-396, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Jean-Charles Rochet, 2006. "Optimal Sovereign Debt: An Analytical Approach," RES Working Papers 4477, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  2. Antonia Diaz & Fernando Perera-Tallo, 2007. "Credit and inflation under borrower’s lack of commitment," Economics Working Papers we077946, Universidad Carlos III, Departamento de Economía. [Downloadable!]
  3. Aleksander Berentsen & Christopher Waller, 2009. "Outside versus inside bonds: A Modigliani-Miller type result for liquidity constrained economies," IEW - Working Papers iewwp443, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
  4. Gaetano Bloise & Pietro Reichlin, 2008. "Asset Prices, Debt Constraints And Inefficiency," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0089, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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