IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fth/bosecd/59.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Sovereign Debt

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Eaton
  • Raquel Fernandez

Abstract

We review the literature on sovereign debt. We organize our survey around three central questions: (1) Why do sovereign debtors ever repay their debts? (2) What burdens, in the form of distortions and inefficiencies, does sovereign debt impose? and (3) How might debt be restructured to reduce these burdens? In grappling with the first question the literature has pointed to, and argued about, the roles of reputation, punishments, rewards, and renegotiation. In addressing the second the literature has asked whether sovereign debtors tend to borrow too much or to little, and how debt can distort the domestic economy. Answers to the third question include measures by creditors, by debtors, and by public institutions to reduce debt burdens.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Eaton & Raquel Fernandez, 1995. "Sovereign Debt," Boston University - Institute for Economic Development 59, Boston University, Institute for Economic Development.
  • Handle: RePEc:fth:bosecd:59
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eaton, Jonathan, 1987. "Public Debt Guarantees and Private Capital Flight," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 1(3), pages 377-395, May.
    2. Rubinstein, Ariel, 1982. "Perfect Equilibrium in a Bargaining Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 97-109, January.
    3. Mamoru Kaneko & Jacek Prokop, 1993. "A game theoretical approach to the international debt overhang," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 1-24, February.
    4. Michael P. Dooley & Kenneth M. Kletzer, 1994. "Capital flight, external debt, and domestic policies," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, pages 29-37.
    5. Diwan, Ishac & Claessens, Stijn, 1989. "An analysis of debt-reduction schemes initiated by debtor countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 153, The World Bank.
    6. Cole, Harold L & Dow, James & English, William B, 1995. "Default, Settlement, and Signalling: Lending Resumption in a Reputational Model of Sovereign Debt," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 36(2), pages 365-385, May.
    7. Michael Dooley & Mark R. Stone, 1993. "Endogenous Creditor Seniority and External Debt Values," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 40(2), pages 395-413, June.
    8. 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.
    9. Cabral, Celia C., 1996. "Evaluating debt repurchases What are the alternatives to investment?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-4), pages 477-494, May.
    10. Jeremy Bulow & Kenneth Rogoff, 1988. "Multilateral Negotiations for Rescheduling Developing Country Debt: A Bargaining-Theoretic Framework," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 35(4), pages 644-657, December.
    11. Claessens,Constantijn A.*Pennacchi, George, 1992. "Deriving developing country repayment capacity from the market prices of sovereign debt," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1043, The World Bank.
    12. Bulow, Jeremy & Rogoff, Kenneth, 1989. "A Constant Recontracting Model of Sovereign Debt," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(1), pages 155-178, February.
    13. Jeremy Bulow & Kenneth Rogoff, 1991. "Sovereign Debt Repurchases: No Cure for Overhang," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(4), pages 1219-1235.
    14. Diwan, Ishac & Kletzer, Kenneth, 1992. "Voluntary Choices in Concerted Deals: The Menu Approach to Debt Reduction in Developing Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 6(1), pages 91-108, January.
    15. Sebastian Edwards, 1983. "LDC's Foreign Borrowing and Default Risk: An Empirical Investigation," NBER Working Papers 1172, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Jonathan Eaton & Mark Gersovitz, 1987. "Country Risk and the Organization of International Capital Transfer," NBER Working Papers 2204, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Rosenthal, Robert W., 1991. "On the incentives associated with sovereign debt," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1-2), pages 167-176, February.
    18. Daniel Cohen & Jeffrey Sachs, 1991. "Growth and External Debt Under Risk of Debt Repudiation," NBER Chapters, in: International Volatility and Economic Growth: The First Ten Years of The International Seminar on Macroeconomics, pages 437-472, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Fernandez, R. & Rosenthal, R.W., 1988. "Sovereign-Debt Renegotiations: A Strtegic Analysis," Papers 85, Boston University - Center for Latin American Development Studies.
    20. Claessens, Stijn & Oks, Daniel & van Wijnbergen, Sweder, 1993. "Interest rates, growth, and external debt : the macroeconomic impact of Mexico's Brady deal," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1147, The World Bank.
    21. Michael P. Dooley & Eduardo Fernandez-Arias & Kenneth M. Kletzer, 1994. "Recent Private Capital Inflows to Developing Countries: Is the Debt Crisis History?," NBER Working Papers 4792, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. repec:bla:scandj:v:96:y:1994:i:4:p:515-29 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Atkeson, Andrew, 1991. "International Lending with Moral Hazard and Risk of Repudiation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(4), pages 1069-1089, July.
    24. Dooley, Michael & Fernandez-Arias, Eduardo & Kletzer, Kenneth, 1996. "Is the Debt Crisis History? Recent Private Capital Inflows to Developing Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 10(1), pages 27-50, January.
    25. Spiegel, Mark M, 1992. "Concerted Lending: Did Large Banks Bear the Burden?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 24(4), pages 465-482, November.
    26. Fernandez, Raquel & Glazer, Jacob, 1990. "The scope for collusive behavior among debtor countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 297-313, April.
    27. Barry Eichengreen and Richard Portes., 1988. "Settling Defaults in the Era of Bond Finance," Economics Working Papers 8885, University of California at Berkeley.
    28. Krugman, Paul, 1988. "Financing vs. forgiving a debt overhang," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 253-268, November.
    29. Diwan, Ishac & Spiegel, Mark M., 1994. "Are buybacks back? Menu-driven debt reduction schemes with heterogeneous creditors," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 279-293, October.
    30. E. Detragiache & P. G. Garella, 1993. "Debt restructuring with Multiple Creditors: A Public Good Approach," Working Papers 168, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    31. Bulow, Jeremy & Rogoff, Kenneth, 1990. "Cleaning Up Third World Debt without Getting Taken to the Cleaners," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 31-42, Winter.
    32. Worrall, Tim, 1990. "Debt with potential repudiation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1099-1109, July.
    33. Chang, Roberto, 1995. "Private Investment and Sovereign Debt Negotiations," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 36(2), pages 387-405, May.
    34. Douglas W. Diamond, 1984. "Financial Intermediation and Delegated Monitoring," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(3), pages 393-414.
    35. Jonathan Eaton & Mark Gersovitz, 1981. "Debt with Potential Repudiation: Theoretical and Empirical Analysis," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 48(2), pages 289-309.
    36. Kreps, David M. & Wilson, Robert, 1982. "Reputation and imperfect information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 253-279, August.
    37. Kletzer, K.M. & Wright, B.D., 1990. "Sovereign Debt Renegotiation In A Consumption-Smoothing Model," Papers 610, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
    38. Claessens, Stijn & Diwan, Ishac, 1990. "Investment Incentives: New Money, Debt Relief, and the Critical Role of Conditionality in the Debt Crisis," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 4(1), pages 21-41, January.
    39. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1982. "Predation, reputation, and entry deterrence," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 280-312, August.
    40. Daniel Cohen, 1992. "The Debt Crisis: A Postmortem," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1992, Volume 7, pages 65-114, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    41. Harold L. Cole & Patrick J. Kehoe, 1996. "Reputation Spillover Across Relationships with Enduring and Transient Beliefs: Reviving reputation Models of Debt," NBER Working Papers 5486, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    42. Grossman, Herschel I & Van Huyck, John B, 1988. "Sovereign Debt as a Contingent Claim: Excusable Default, Repudiation, and Reputation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(5), pages 1088-1097, December.
    43. Cole, Harold L. & English, William B., 1991. "Expropriation and direct investment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3-4), pages 201-227, May.
    44. Sankarshan Acharya, 1991. "Debt buybacks signal sovereign countries' creditworthiness: theory and tests," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 180, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    45. Detragiache, Enrica, 1994. "Sensible buybacks of sovereign debt," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 317-333, April.
    46. Diwan, I. & Rodrik, D., 1992. "External Debt, Adjustment, and Burden Sharing: A Unified Framework," Princeton Studies in International Economics 73, International Economics Section, Departement of Economics Princeton University,.
    47. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Detragiache, Enrica, 1994. "Interest rates, official lending, and the debt crisis: A reassessment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 263-285, August.
    48. 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.
    49. Eaton, Jonathan, 1990. "Debt Relief and the International Enforcement of Loan Contracts," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 43-56, Winter.
    50. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1981. "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 393-410, June.
    51. Fernandez, Raquel & Ozler, Sule, 1991. "Debt concentration and secondary market prices," Policy Research Working Paper Series 570, The World Bank.
    52. repec:bla:econom:v:63:y:1996:i:249:p:81-95 is not listed on IDEAS
    53. Kletzer, Kenneth M, 1984. "Asymmetries of Information and LDC Borrowing with Sovereign Risk," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(374), pages 287-307, June.
    54. Wells, Robin, 1993. "Tolerance of Arrearages: How IMF Loan Policy Can Effect Debt Reduction," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(3), pages 621-633, June.
    55. Gale, Douglas & Hellwig, Martin, 1989. "Repudiation and Renegotiation: The Case of Sovereign Debt," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 30(1), pages 3-31, February.
    56. Diaz-Alejandro, Carlos, 1985. "Good-bye financial repression, hello financial crash," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1-2), pages 1-24.
    57. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Fernandez-Arias, Eduardo, 1992. "Burden-sharing among official and private creditors," Policy Research Working Paper Series 943, The World Bank.
    58. Detragiache, Enrica, 1992. "Optimal loan contracts and floating-rate debt in international lending to LDCs," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1241-1261, August.
    59. Eaton, Jonathan & Gersovitz, Mark, 1995. "Some curious properties of a familiar model of debt and default," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(3-4), pages 367-371, June.
    60. Raquel Fernandez & Sule Ozler, 1991. "Debt Concentration and Secondary Markets Prices: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis," NBER Working Papers 3654, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    61. Eaton, Jonathan & Gersovitz, Mark, 1984. "A Theory of Expropriation and Deviations from Perfect Capital Mobility," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(373), pages 16-40, March.
    62. Fernandez, Raquel & Kaaret, David, 1992. "Bank Heterogeneity, Reputation and Debt Renegotiation," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 33(1), pages 61-78, February.
    63. Ozler, Sule, 1992. "The evolution of credit terms : An empirical study of commercial bank lending to developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 79-97, January.
    64. Ozler, Sule, 1993. "Have Commercial Banks Ignored History?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(3), pages 608-620, June.
    65. Diwan, Ishac & Spiegel, Mark M., 1994. "Are buybacks back? Menu-driven debt reduction schemes with heterogeneous creditors," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 279-293, October.
    66. Carlos F. Diaz-Alejandro, 1984. "Latin American Debt: I Don't Think We Are in Kansas Anymore," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 15(2), pages 335-403.
    67. Kenen, Peter B, 1990. "Organizing Debt Relief: The Need for a New Institution," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 7-18, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fafchamps, Marcel, 1996. "Sovereign debt, structural adjustment, and conditionality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 313-335, August.
    2. Bowe, M. & Dean, J.W., 1997. "Has the Market Solved the Sovereign-Debt Crisis?," Princeton Studies in International Economics 83, International Economics Section, Departement of Economics Princeton University,.
    3. Klimenko, Mikhail M., 2002. "Trade interdependence, the international financial institutions, and the recent evolution of sovereign-debt renegotiations," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 177-209, October.
    4. Brian D. Wright & Kenneth M. Kletzer, 2000. "Sovereign Debt as Intertemporal Barter," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(3), pages 621-639, June.
    5. Kletzer, Kenneth M. & Wright, Brian D., 1998. "Sovereign Debt as Intertemporal Barter," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt4qg3c42v, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    6. Fernando Broner & Alberto Martin & Jaume Ventura, 2010. "Sovereign Risk and Secondary Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(4), pages 1523-1555, September.
    7. Cole, Harold L. & Kehoe, Patrick J., 1995. "The role of institutions in reputation models of sovereign debt," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 45-64, February.
    8. Harold L. Cole & Patrick J. Kehoe, . "Reputation spillover across relationships: reviving reputation models of debt," Staff Report, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    9. Jonathan P. Thomas, 2001. "Default Costs, Willingness to Pay and Sovereign Debt Buybacks," International Finance 0103002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Harold L. Cole & Patrick J. Kehoe, 1996. "Reputation Spillover Across Relationships with Enduring and Transient Beliefs: Reviving reputation Models of Debt," NBER Working Papers 5486, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Gelos, R. Gaston & Sahay, Ratna & Sandleris, Guido, 2011. "Sovereign borrowing by developing countries: What determines market access?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 243-254, March.
    12. 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 651-698, September.
    13. Kletzer, Kenneth, 1989. "Inefficient Private Renegotiation of Sovereign Debt," CEPR Discussion Papers 357, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Catão, Luis A.V. & Fostel, Ana & Kapur, Sandeep, 2009. "Persistent gaps and default traps," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 271-284, July.
    15. Eduardo Borensztein & Ugo Panizza, 2009. "The Costs of Sovereign Default," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 56(4), pages 683-741, November.
    16. Plaut, Steven E. & Melnik, Arie L., 2003. "International institutional lending arrangements to sovereign borrowers," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 459-481, August.
    17. Bulow, Jeremy & Rogoff, Kenneth, 1989. "Sovereign Debt: Is to Forgive to Forget?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 43-50, March.
    18. Guimaraes, Bernardo, 2007. "Optimal external debt and default," CEPR Discussion Papers 6035, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. 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.
    20. Harold L. Cole & Patrick J. Kehoe, 1997. "Models of sovereign debt: partial vs. general reputations," Working Papers 580, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F34 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Lending and Debt Problems

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fth:bosecd:59. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thomas Krichel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iedbuus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.