I analyze how lack of commitment affects the maturity structure of sovereign debt. Governments balance benefits of …-term debt affects default and rollover decisions by subsequent policy makers. The equilibrium maturity structure is shaped by … revenue losses on inframarginal units of debt that reflect the price impact of these decisions. The model predicts an interior …

the same time, private debt levels, particularly those of financial institutions and households, are in uncharted …, restructuring of public and private debts. A more subtle form of debt restructuring in the guise of "financial repression" (which … had its heyday during the tightly regulated Bretton Woods system) also importantly facilitated sharper and more rapid debt …