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External and Public Debt Crises

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  • Cristina Arellano
  • Andrew Atkeson
  • Mark Wright

Abstract

The recent debt crises in Europe and the U.S. states feature similar sharp increases in spreads on government debt but also show important differences. In Europe, the crisis occurred at high government indebtedness levels and had spillovers to the private sector. In the United States, state government indebtedness was low, and the crisis had no spillovers to the private sector. We show theoretically and empirically that these different debt experiences result from the interplay between differences in the ability of governments to interfere in private external debt contracts and differences in the flexibility of state fiscal institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Cristina Arellano & Andrew Atkeson & Mark Wright, 2015. "External and Public Debt Crises," NBER Working Papers 21456, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21456
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    2. Anusha Chari & Ryan Leary & Toan Phan, 2017. "The Costs of (sub)Sovereign Default Risk: Evidence from Puerto Rico," NBER Working Papers 24108, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Ernesto Longobardi & Antonio Pedone, 2018. "On some recent proposals of public debt restructuring in the Eurozone," Chapters, in: Giuseppe Eusepi & Richard E. Wagner (ed.), Debt Default and Democracy, chapter 6, pages 84-123, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Dumitriu, Ramona & Stefanescu, Răzvan, 2020. "Iluzii financiare, Partea întâi [Financial Illusions, Part 1]," MPRA Paper 101201, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Jun 2020.
    5. Kaas, Leo & Mellert, Jan & Scholl, Almuth, 2020. "Sovereign and private default risks over the business cycle," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    6. Lazopoulos, Ioannis & Gabriel, Vasco, 2019. "Policy mandates and institutional architecture," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 122-134.
    7. Ricardo Reis, 2015. "Comment on "External and Public Debt Crises"," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2015, Volume 30, pages 245-256, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Kollintzas, Tryphon & Papageorgiou, Dimitris & Vassilatos, Vanghelis, 2018. "Market and political power interactions in Greece: A theory," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 59-83.
    9. van Riet, Ad, 2015. "Market-preserving fiscal federalism in the European Monetary Union," MPRA Paper 77772, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Tryphon Kollintzas & Dimitris Papageorgiou & Efthymios Tsionas & Vanghelis Vassilatos, 2018. "Market and political power interactions in Greece: an empirical investigation," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-43, December.
    11. Neele Balke, 2018. "The Employment Cost of Sovereign Default," 2018 Meeting Papers 1256, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    12. Minjie Deng, 2021. "Inequality, Taxation, and Sovereign Default Risk," Discussion Papers dp21-15, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    13. repec:agr:journl:v:4(605):y:2015:i:4(605):p:189-198 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Cláudia Braz & João Amador & Lara Wemans & Maria Manuel Campos & Sharmin Sazedj, 2016. "Sustentabilidade da dívida pública: Metodologias e discussões nas instituições europeias," Working Papers o201601, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    15. Bocola, Luigi & Bornstein, Gideon & Dovis, Alessandro, 2019. "Quantitative sovereign default models and the European debt crisis," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 20-30.
    16. Walid BENAYED & Foued Badr GABSI & Samia OMRANE BELGUITH, 2015. "Threshold Effect of Public Debt on Domestic Investment: Evidence from Selected African Countries," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(4(605), W), pages 189-198, Winter.
    17. Qaiser Munir & Sook Ching Kok & Winnie Abdulnasir, 2016. "Public debt sustainability and economic growth in Malaysia: Threshold and causality analysis," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 5306868, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    18. Phu Nguyen-Van & Florian Grosset & Roberto Martino, 2015. "Critères de convergence, déréglementation du marché du travail et performance économique des régions européennes," Bulletin de l'Observatoire des politiques économiques en Europe, Observatoire des Politiques Économiques en Europe (OPEE), vol. 33(1), pages 3-6, December.
    19. Harinder S. Kohli (ed.), 2016. "The World in 2050: Striving for a More Just, Prosperous, and Harmonious Global Community," Books, Emerging Markets Forum, edition 1, number world2050, October.

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    JEL classification:

    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations
    • K1 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law

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