This paper studies the different economic configurations that may give rise to incomplete fiscal decentralization, with the vertical imbalance problem associated to it. Particularly, we look at an economy which has given up monetary policy and cannot monetize national or sub-national government...

This paper provides a general approach in the framework of a complete markets stochastic overlapping generations model to assess whether debt Ponzi schemes are feasible and Pareto-improving. We derive conditions in terms of bond interest rates of different maturities which can be used to assess...

This paper explores the case of a sovereign indebted country facing a choice of economic policy today that will determine the country's ability to continue its debt servicing in the future. If the sovereign undertakes an unsound economic policy it will repudiate its debt with certainty;...

In this paper we study the question of debt sustainability from a risk management perspective. The debt accumulation equation for any country involves variables that are stochastic and closely intertwined. When these aspects are taken into consideration the notion of debt sustainability is...

We present the first firm-level analysis of stock market liberalization on investment. In the year that an emerging economy liberalizes, the growth rate of its typical firm^Òs capital stock exceeds the pre-liberalization mean by 4.1 percentage points. In each of the next three years the average...

This paper examines how the choice of exchange rate regime can signal financial rectitude and, in so doing, influcence a country's ability to borrow internationally in domestic currency. We develop a model in which the constant probability of a 'type change' creates incentives for disciplined...

Collective action clauses (CACs) are provisions specifying that a supermajority of bondholders can change the terms of a bond. We study how CACs determine governments’ fiscal incentives, sovereign bond prices and default probabilities in environments with and without contingent debt and...

This paper presents a simple model of debt contracts in order to analyze the conditions under which domestic residents would choose to denominate debts in ``dollars''. In the model, borrowers are producers of non-traded goods, and subject to shocks on prices. The real exchange rate varies in...

If country and currency risk premiums are positively correlated, a negative international liquidity shock harms twice the economy, thereby substantially increasing interest rates. This harmful positive correlation between country and currency risk premiums observed in some countries is called...

This paper investigates implications of nominal rigidities for the risk premium. We use Obstfeld and Rogoff (1998) type DSGE model equipped with nominal rigidities, imperfect market competitions, a production sector, and a money-in-the-utility function. For a monthly frequency, we generate...