The determinants of "domestic" original sin in emerging market economies

This paper explains why domestic debt composition in some emerging economies is risky. To this end, it carries out a systematic analysis of the determinants of the so-called domestic original sin, which refers to the inability of emerging economies to borrow domestically in local currency, at long maturities and fixed interest rates. As such, the latter is a measure of financial vulnerabilities arising from domestic debt composition, which encompasses maturity mismatches, rollover risk and interest payment contingency. The paper builds on a large dataset compiled by the authors from national sources. It finds that domestic original sin is particularly severe when inflation is lofty, the debt service-to-GDP ration high, the slope of the yield curve inverted and the investor base narrow. These results suggest that sound macroeconomic policies, attractive long-term yields and policies aimed at widening the investor base are instrumental to overcome domestic original sin, reduce domestic debt riskiness and tilt its composition towards safer, long-term, unindexed, local currency instruments