Quantitative Implications of Indexed Bonds in Small Open Economies: Working Paper 2006-12

Recent studies have proposed setting up a benchmark market for indexed bonds to prevent "Sudden Stops," emerging-market crises initiated by sudden reversals of capital inflows. This paper analyzes the macroeconomic implications of such bonds, which would be indexed to the terms of trade or GDP, using a general equilibrium model of a small open economy with financial frictions. Although indexed bonds provide a hedge to income fluctuations and can thereby mitigate the effects of financial frictions, they introduce interest rate fluctuations. Because of this tradeoff, there exists a nonmonotonic