We compare the experience of Latin American external debt crises, in particular the one in the 80s, with the current European one. We do so with the aim of shedding some light on the needed adjustment mechanisms. We argue for the need of much larger debt relief in Europe. To address the moral...

Emerging economies tend to experience larger political uncertainty and more default episodes than developed countries. This paper studies the effect of political uncertainty on sovereign default and interest rate spreads in emerging markets. The paper develops a quantitative model of sovereign...

Emerging economies tend to experience larger fluctuations in their terms of trade, countercyclical interest rates and more default episodes than developed countries. These structural features might suggest a relevant role for world prices in driving country spreads. This paper studies the role...