This paper discusses the way in which the existence of debt denominated in both domestic and foreign currency affects debt-sustainability analyses. Ignoring valuation issues can lead to misleading conclusions regarding fiscal sustainability. We show that a devaluation of the domestic currency...

Credit is the backbone of capitalism because credit allows allocating resources efficiently to economic activities. For the case of distress, a bankruptcy regime is established which allows reviving viable but financially distressed businesses and to liquidate structurally distressed businesses...

Municipality budgets in Germany finished the fiscal year 2013 in total with a surplus of 1.7 bn euro. In addition, the current year their overall budget will conclude with a surplus. However, there are huge differences in the situation of local budgets. Numerous local authorities have serious...

The interest rate-growth differential (IRGD) shows a marked correlation with GDP per capita. It has been on average around 1 percentage point for large advanced economies during 1999-2008; but below -7 percentage points among non-advanced economies - exerting a powerful stabilizing influence on...

Purpose With a newly developed measure of economic freedom across US local government jurisdictions, this paper aims to estimate the relationship between economic freedom and bond ratings. Design/methodology/approach The author uses a battery of cross-sectional econometric models to identify the...

This paper examines the efforts of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to first control, and later decontrol, the level and shape of the Treasury yield curve in the 1940s. The paper begins with a brief review of monetary policy in 1938 and a description of the period between September 1939...

This paper investigates the goals, costs, and benefits of official-sector purchases of government securities for the purpose of restoring market functionality. We explore the design of market-function purchase programs, including their communication, triggers, operational protocols, exit, and...

Many financial markets are populated by dealers, who commit to participate regularly in the market, and non-dealers, who do not commit. This market structure introduces a trade-off between competition and volatility, which we study using data on Canadian treasury auctions. We document a...