We demonstrate that durable MFN tariff elimination affects trade patterns through severallayers, which generates non-linear impacts. First, complete tariff elimination results in a largeadditional trade gains over and above tariff reductions. Second, commitment to durable tariffelimination,...

Is the seniority structure of sovereign debt neutral for a government's decision betweendefaulting and raising surpluses? In this paper, we address this question using a model ofdebt crises where a discretionary government endogenously chooses distortionary taxationand whether to apply an...

Government financial assets are increasingly recognized as playing an important role inassessing fiscal sustainability. However, very little research has been done on the dynamics ofgovernment financial assets compared to liabilities. In this paper, we investigate the impact ofrecent financial...

Do persistently low nominal interest rates mean that governments can safely borrow more? To address this question, I extend the model of Ghosh et al. [2013] to allow for persistent stochastic changes in nominal interest and growth rates. The key model parameter is the long-run difference between...

With the rapid growth of countries' foreign asset and liability positions over the last two decades,financial returns on those positions ('NFA returns') have become material drivers of current accounts and net stock positions. This paper documents the relative importance of NFA return versus...

Should policymakers wait for fiscal crisis early warning signals before repairing the roof? We give an answer to this question by investigating the interlinkages between early warning signals for fiscal crisis, policy responses, and policy outcomes, using a broad panel of 119 countries. We find...

This paper provides an overview of sovereign debt portfolio risks and discusses various liability management operations (LMOs) and instruments used by public debt managers to mitigate these risks. Debt management strategies analyzed in the context of helping reach debt portfolio targets and...

This paper shows that stabilizing volatility in credit growth often conflicts with price stability: unusual credit expansions often occur when inflation is low relative to goals, and credit slumps often appear when inflation is overshooting. We find that central banks with inflation targeting...