This paper studies the maturity, timing and relative size of repayments for sovereign debt. Using Bloomberg bond data for emerging economies, we document that sovereigns issue debt with shorter maturity but more back-loaded repayments during downturns. To account for this pattern, we study a...

The maturity of government debt varies across countries and time. We document that in times of high inflation the maturity of debt is shorter and the level of debt is lower. We develop a model of the maturity of debt based on government credibility. We show that credible government who can...