Borrowing with Unobserved Liquidity Constraints: Strcutural Estimation with an Application to Sovereign Debt

We develop a framework for estimating the optimal expenditure of agents subject to unobserved liquidity constraints. OUr framework allows us to estimate credit ceilings as well as preference parameters. We apply the framework to data on net resource transfers from private lenders to twenty-nine sovereign debtors during 1973-1993. We obtain reasonable estimates of the discount factor, elasticity of marginal utility of expenditure, and the credit ceiling for most countries.