Brazil's public debt is large and interest payments weigh dangerously on the government's budget. In 2001 interest expenditure amounted to 7,3 per cent of GDP. On a mark-to-market basis (that is considering the effect of exchange rate depreciation on the value of foreign currency-denominated...

A fiscal shock due to a shift in taxes or in government spending will, at some point in time, constrain the future path of taxes and spending, since the government's intertemporal budget constraint will eventually have to be met. This simple fact is surprisingly overlooked in analyses of the...

This paper provides evidence on the behavior of public debt managers during fiscal stabilizations in OECD countries over the last two decades. We find that debt maturity tends to lengthen the more credible is the program, the lower is the long-term interest rate and the higher is the volatility...