Highly indebted developing economies commonly also hold large external reserves. This behavior seems puzzling given that governments borrow with an interest rate penalty to compensate lenders for default risk. Although reducing external debt to the same extent as international reserves would...

Highly indebted developing economies commonly also hold large external reserves. This behavior seems puzzling given that governments borrow with an interest rate penalty to compensate lenders for default risk. Although reducing external debt to the same extent as international reserves would...

Information is thought to be an important policy tool for managing epidemics. In particular, providing the public with data that tracks the severity of an outbreak – such as case and death counts – may allow individuals to assess risks and modify behaviors. However, issues with data...

To measure the real effects of credit-supply disruptions during financial crises, we develop a quantitative model of firm investment and debt that features firm heterogeneity and financial frictions. We apply this framework to a novel, census-type panel dataset for manufacturing firms and find...

Understanding the determinants and implications of delays in reporting COVID-19 deaths is important for managing the epidemic. Contrasting England and Mexico, we document that reporting delays in Mexico are larger on average, exhibit higher geographic heterogeneity, and are more responsive to...