In a country with high probability of default, higher interest rates may render the currency lessattractive if sovereign default is costly. This paper develops that intuition in a simple model andestimates the effect of changes in interest rates on the exchange rate in Brazil using data from...

We empirically analyse the appropriateness of indexing emerging market sovereign debt to USreal interest rates. We find that policy-induced exogenous increases in US rates raise default riskin emerging market economies, as hypothesised in the theoretical literature. However, we also findevidence...

This paper considers the currency composition of sovereign debt in the context of risksharingthrough excusable defaults. It is shown that monetary credibility is not asufficient condition for borrowing in domestic currency. With real exchange rate risk,debt denominated in a borrowing country’s...

Bailing out banks requires overcoming debt overhang as well as dealing with adverseselection with respect to the quality of banks' balance sheets, in terms of heterogeneity inboth the likelihood and extent of their potential shortfalls, of future asset values vis-a-viscontractual debt...

This paper studies public-debt runs under alternative assumptions on the distribution oftaxes among tax bases, the distribution of debt among classes of taxpayers, and thedistributive preferences of the government. Asymmetries in the distribution of taxes--arising, for example, from income-tax...