When is external debt sustainable?
Abstract
This paper examines the determinants of"debt distress,"which they define as periods in which countries resort to exceptional finance in any of three forms: (1) significant arrears on external debt, (2) Paris Club rescheduling, and (3) nonconcessional International Monetary Fund lending. Using probit regressions, the authors find that three factors explain a substantial fraction of the cross-country and time-series variation in the incidence of debt distress: the debt burden, the quality of policies and institutions, and shocks. They show that these results are robust to a variety of alternative specifications, and that their core specifications have substantial out-of-sample predictive power. The authors also explore the quantitative implications of these results for the lending strategies of official creditors.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.Bibliographic Info
Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 3200.Length:
Date of creation: 01 Feb 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3200
Contact details of provider:
Postal: 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433
Phone: (202) 477-1234
Email:
Web page: http://www.worldbank.org/
More information through EDIRC
Related research
Keywords: Banks&Banking Reform; Economic Theory&Research; Strategic Debt Management; Environmental Economics&Policies; Payment Systems&Infrastructure; Economic Theory&Research; Strategic Debt Management; Banks&Banking Reform; Environmental Economics&Policies; Housing Finance;Other versions of this item:
- Aart Kraay & Vikram Nehru, 2006. "When Is External Debt Sustainable?," World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 20(3), pages 341-365.
- NEP-ALL-2004-08-16 (All new papers)
- NEP-DEV-2004-08-16 (Development)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease 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.:
- Reinhart, Carmen & Rogoff, Kenneth & Savastano, Miguel, 2003.
"Debt intolerance,"
MPRA Paper
13932, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff & Miguel A. Savastano, 2003. "Debt Intolerance," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 34(1), pages 1-74.
- Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff & Miguel A. Savastano, 2003. "Debt Intolerance," NBER Working Papers 9908, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2005.
"Simple solutions to the initial conditions problem in dynamic, nonlinear panel data models with unobserved heterogeneity,"
Journal of Applied Econometrics,
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 39-54.
- Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2002. "Simple solutions to the initial conditions problem in dynamic, nonlinear panel data models with unobserved heterogeneity," CeMMAP working papers CWP18/02, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
- Carmen M. Reinhart, 2002.
"Default, Currency Crises and Sovereign Credit Ratings,"
NBER Working Papers
8738, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Carmen M. Reinhart, 2002. "Default, Currency Crises, and Sovereign Credit Ratings," World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 16(2), pages 151-170, August.
- Reinhart, Carmen, 2002. "Default, currency crises, and sovereign credit ratings," MPRA Paper 13917, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- repec:rus:hseeco:123922 is not listed on IDEAS
- Andrew Berg & Jeffrey Sachs, 1988.
"The Debt Crisis: Structural Explanations of Country Performance,"
NBER Working Papers
2607, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Berg, Andrew & Sachs, Jeffrey, 1988. "The debt crisis structural explanations of country performance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 271-306, November.
- Lynn Aylward & Rupert Thorne, 1998. "An Econometric Analysis of Countries' Repayment Performance to the International Monetary Fund," IMF Working Papers 98/32, International Monetary Fund.
- Nancy Birdsall & Stijn Claessens & Ishac Diwan, 2003.
"Policy Selectivity Forgone: Debt and Donor Behavior in Africa,"
World Bank Economic Review,
World Bank Group, vol. 17(3), pages 409-435, December.
- Nancy Birdsall & Stijn Claessens & Ishac Diwan, 2002. "Policy Selectivity Foregone: Debt and Donor Behavior in Africa," Working Papers 17, Center for Global Development.
- Lloyd-Ellis, H. & McKenzie, G. W. & Thomas, S. H., 1990. "Predicting the quantity of LDC debt rescheduling," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 67-73, January.
- Axel Schimmelpfennig & Nouriel Roubini & Paolo Manasse, 2003. "Predicting Sovereign Debt Crises," IMF Working Papers 03/221, International Monetary Fund.
- Cohen, Daniel, 1996. "The sustainability of African debt," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1621, The World Bank.
- Enrica Detragiache & Antonio Spilimbergo, 2001. "Crises and Liquidity - Evidence and Interpretation," IMF Working Papers 01/2, International Monetary Fund.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Eduardo Borensztein & Ugo Panizza, 2009.
"The Costs of Sovereign Default,"
IMF Staff Papers,
Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 56(4), pages 683-741, November.
- Eduardo Borensztein & Ugo Panizza, 2008. "The Costs of Sovereign Default," IMF Working Papers 08/238, International Monetary Fund.
- Sanford, Jonathan E., 2004. "IDA Grants and HIPC Debt Cancellation: Their Effectiveness and Impact on IDA Resources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1579-1607, September.
- Ratha, Dilip & De, Prabal & Mohapatra, Sanket, 2007.
"Shadow sovereign ratings for unrated developing countries,"
Policy Research Working Paper Series
4269, The World Bank.
- Ratha, Dilip & De, Prabal K. & Mohapatra, Sanket, 2011. "Shadow Sovereign Ratings for Unrated Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 295-307, March.
- Marco Arnone & Luca Bandiera & Andrea Presbitero, 2005. "External Debt Sustainability: Theory and Empirical Evidence," International Finance 0512007, EconWPA.
- Sebastian M. Saiegh, 2009. "Coalition Governments And Sovereign Debt Crises," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(2), pages 232-254, 07.
- Flores Prieto, Pedro & Fullerton, Thomas M., Jr. & Andrade Olivas, Cesar, 2007.
"Evidencia empirica sobre deuda externa, inversion, y crecimiento en Mexico, 1980-2003
[Empirical evidence on foreign debt, investment, and growth in Mexico, 1980-2003]," MPRA Paper 9497, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Apr 2007. - Ugo Panizza & Federico Sturzenegger & Jeromin Zettelmeyer, 2009. "The Economics and Law of Sovereign Debt and Default," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 651-98, September.
- Ferrarini, Benno, 2008. "Proposal for a Contingency Debt Sustainability Framework," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 2547-2565, December.
- Caroline Rijckeghem & Beatrice Weder, 2009. "Political institutions and debt crises," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 387-408, March.
- Delano P. Villanueva & Roberto S. Mariano, 2007.
"External Debt, Adjustment, and Growth,"
NBER Chapters,
in: Fiscal Policy and Management in East Asia, NBER-EASE, Volume 16, pages 199-221
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Roberto S. Mariano & Delano Villanueva, 2005. "External Debt, Adjustment, and Growth," Working Papers 13-2006, Singapore Management University, School of Economics, revised May 2006.
- Paresh Kumar Narayan & Russell Smyth, 2007. "The Military Expenditure-External Debt Nexus: New Evidence From A Panel Of Middle Eastern Countries," Monash Economics Working Papers 17-07, Monash University, Department of Economics.
- M. Arnone & A. F. Presbitero, 2007.
"External Debt Sustainability and Domestic Debt in Heavily Indebted Poor Countries,"
Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali,
Vita e Pensiero, Pubblicazioni dell'Universita' Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, vol. 115(2), pages 187-213.
- Presbitero, Andrea F. & Arnone, Marco, 2006. "External debt sustainability and domestic debt in Heavily Indebted Poor Countries," MPRA Paper 1396, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Cassimon, Denis & Moreno-Dodson, Blanca & Wodon, Quentin, 2008. "Debt Sustainability for Low-Income Countries: A Review of Standard and Alternative Concepts," MPRA Paper 11077, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Gul, Adnan, 2008. "Is external debt an effective way of bringing economic reforms?," MPRA Paper 10979, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Michalis Petrides & Alex Karagrigoriou, 2008. "Determinants of Debt: An Econometric Analysis Based on the Cyprus Survey of Consumer Finances," Financial Theory and Practice, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 32(1), pages 45-64.
- Benno Ferrarini, 2009. "Policy, vulnerability and the new debt sustainability framework," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(7), pages 895-914.
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3200For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Roula I. Yazigi).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

