We study the role of domestic financial institutions in sustaining capital flows to the private and public sector of a country whose government can default on its debt. As in recent public debt crises, in our model public defaults weaken banks' balance sheets, disrupting domestic financial...

This paper examines the determinants of public debt dynamics in Low Income Countries (LICs) over the period 1990-2003. Debt dynamics in LICs are influenced not only by macroeconomic variables but also by the composition of debt and the provision of debt relief over time. The study considers a...

Can sovereign debt write-downs be used to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)? This paper shows that transparency of domestic governance determines how a sovereign debt write-down is structured to attain the MDGs. When domestic governance is transparent, an unconditional debt...

In this paper, we explore the potential growth effects of foreign aid when in conjunction with severe debt problems. We first argue that aid, when used to finance debt repayments, does not lead to Dutch Disease while still alleviating an economic problem. A set of empirical estimates show that...

According to reputation models of sovereign debt, the incentives to repay are proportional to the income insurance benefits provided by access to international markets. This paper, however, documents that private net lending to developing countries exhibits a procyclical or acyclical pattern,...

International debt contracts can incorporate at least implicitly contingencies governing debt reduction. This paper examines a series of debt contracts that allow for the possibility of rescheduling, forgiveness, and rescheduling with forgiveness. The contract with both rescheduling and...

The paper presents a theoretical model to explain how debt overhang is generated in low-income countries and discusses its implications for debt relief. The paper indicates that the extent of debt overhang, and the effectiveness of debt relief, would depend on a recipient country's initial...

A striking feature of sovereign lending is that many countries with moderate debt-to-income ratios systematically face higher spreads and more stringent borrowing constraints than others with far higher debt ratios. Earlier research has rationalized the phenomenon in terms of sovereign...

This paper investigates the channels through which debt affects growth, specifically whether debt affects growth through factor accumulation or total factor productivity growth. It also tests for the presence of nonlinearities in the effects of debt on the different sources of growth. We use a...

This paper analyzes the impact of debt forgiveness on economic equilibrium. Since the root cause of an economic crisis is debt, eradicating the root may solve the problem. However, it does not prevent future crises from occurring. It is found that debt relief in a global scale can help reach...