Borrowing and lending between sovereign parties is modeled as intertemporal barter that smoothes the consumption of a risk-averse party subject to endowment shocks. The surplus anticipated in the relationship offers sufficient incentive for cooperation by all parties, including any other competitive agents who are potential lenders to the sovereign. The sole punishments consist of renegotiation-proof changes in the path of future payments. We show that intertemporal trade can be sustained in the absence of any exogenous enforcement of lending relationships whatsoever. That is, borrowing and lending are possible under anarchy, and are supported by punishments that consist of cheating any cheater. Long-term implicit relationships may be fulfilled as the continual renegotiation of simple incomplete short-term loans. The analysis suggests that the crucial role of the explicit loan contract is the identification of the relationship and the parties involved.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. 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.
Find related papers by JEL classification: F30 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - General F34 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Lending and Debt Problems
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS 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.:
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)
Other versions:
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!]
Peter H. Lindert & Peter J. Morton, 1989.
"How Sovereign Debt Has Worked,"
NBER Chapters,
in: Developing Country Debt and Economic Performance, Volume 1: The International Financial System, pages 39-106
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
Peter H. Lindert & Peter J. Morton, 1989.
"How Sovereign Debt Has Worked,"
NBER Chapters,
in: Developing Country Debt and the World Economy, pages 225-236
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!]
Chari, V V & Kehoe, Patrick J, 1990.
"Sustainable Plans,"
Journal of Political Economy,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 783-802, August.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
V.V. Chari & Patrick J. Kehoe, 1989.
"Sustainable plans,"
Staff Report
122, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
[Downloadable!]
Eaton, Jonathan & Engers, Maxim, 1992.
"Sanctions,"
Journal of Political Economy,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 899-928, October.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Eaton, J. & Engers, M., 1990.
"Sanctions,"
Papers
221, Osaka - Institute of Social and Economic Research.
Jonathan Eaton & Raquel Fernandez, 1995.
"Sovereign Debt,"
NBER Working Papers
5131, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Eaton, J. & Fernandez, R., 1995.
"Sovereign Debt,"
Papers
37, Boston University - Department of Economics.
Eaton, Jonathan & Fernandez, Raquel, 1995.
"Sovereign debt,"
Handbook of International Economics,
in: G. M. Grossman & K. Rogoff (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 3, pages 2031-2077
Elsevier.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
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.) This item has more than 25 citations. To prevent cluttering this page, these citations are listed on a separate page.