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Sovereign Debt Restructurings: Panacea or Pangloss?

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  • Jeremy I. Bulow
  • Kenneth Rogoff

Abstract

The most widely proposed LDC debt plans are flawed by their failure to recognize the fundamental differences between corporate and sovereign debt. Consequently, many plans intended to help highly-indebted countries mainly aid their foreign creditors. This paper emphasizes the crucial distinction between marginal and average sovereign debt. This distinction provides the cornerstone for an understanding of debt buybacks, debt-equity swaps, and debt-for-debt swaps involving new classes of seniority. Highly indebted countries would benefit more from direct transfers than from the same resources spent on any of these financial engineering schemes.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeremy I. Bulow & Kenneth Rogoff, 1988. "Sovereign Debt Restructurings: Panacea or Pangloss?," NBER Working Papers 2637, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2637
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jeffrey Sachs & Harry Huizinga, 1987. "U.S. Commercial Banks and the Developing-Country Debt Crisis," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 18(2), pages 555-606.
    2. Michael P. Dooley, 1988. "Buy-Backs and Market Valuation of External Debt," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 35(2), pages 215-229, June.
    3. Atkeson, Andrew, 1991. "International Lending with Moral Hazard and Risk of Repudiation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(4), pages 1069-1089, July.
    4. Barry Eichengreen and Richard Portes., 1988. "Settling Defaults in the Era of Bond Finance," Economics Working Papers 8885, University of California at Berkeley.
    5. 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.
    6. Stanley Fischer, 1989. "Resolving the International Debt Crisis," NBER Chapters, in: Developing Country Debt and Economic Performance, Volume 1: The International Financial System, pages 359-386, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Jeffrey Sachs, 1986. "Managing the LDC Debt Crisis," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 17(2), pages 397-440.
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    Cited by:

    1. Joshua Aizenman & Brian Pinto, 2004. "Managing Volatility and Crises: A Practitioner's Guide Overview," NBER Working Papers 10602, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Norman S. Fieleke, 1988. "International payments imbalances in heavily indebted developing countries," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, vol. 32, pages 58-102.
    3. Siebert, Horst, 1989. "Güterwirtschaftliche Anpassungsprozesse zur Lösung der Verschuldungsfrage," Kiel Working Papers 349, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    4. Froot, Kenneth A, 1989. "Buybacks, Exit Bonds, and the Optimality of Debt and Liquidity Relief," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 30(1), pages 49-70, February.
    5. Norman S. Fieleke, 1990. "Economic Adjustment In Heavily Indebted Developing Countries," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 8(2), pages 18-35, April.
    6. Cohen, Daniel & Villemot, Sébastien, 2015. "Endogenous debt crises," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 337-369.

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