This paper analyzes optimal foreign aid policy in a neoclassical framework with a conflict of interest between the donor and the recipient government. Aid conditionality is modelled as a limited enforceable contract. We define conditional aid policy to be self-enforcing if, at any point in time,...

Is increased competition in international financial markets desirable? On the one hand, reductions in mnopoly power can be efficiency improving. On the other, increased competition may make it hard to coordinate in disciplining debtors in default. This paper presents a model that formalizes this...

Can the international financial system be reformed to reduce the costs of sovereign defaults? What would the consequences of such ex post reforms be on the ex ante level of sovereign borrowing? This paper presents a simple model in which sovereign debt restructuring negotiations are plagued by...

We examine the role of dierent explanations for the lack of flows of capital from rich to poor countries−the Lucas paradox−in an empirical framework. Broadly speaking, the theoretical explanations for this paradox include dierences in fundamentals aecting the production structure...

We introduce elements of state-dependent pricing and strategic complementarity into an otherwise standard New Open Economy Macroeconomics (NOEM) model. Relative to previous NOEM work, there are striking new implications for the dynamics of real and nominal economic activity: complementarity in...

In a closed economy general equilibrium model, Hopenhayn and Rogerson (1993) find large welfare gains to removing firing restrictions. We explore the extent to which international trade alters this result. When economies trade, labor market policies in one country spill over to other countries...

I analyze how lack of commitment affects the maturity structure of sovereign debt. Ex post, the government trades off the gains from default induced redistribution against the cost of defaulting. Ex ante, the government issues debt of various maturities to raise an exogenous revenue requirement....