This paper is a chapter in the forthcoming Handbook of International Economics. It surveys the literature on the specification of models of asset markets and the implications of differences in specification for the macroeconomic adjustment process. Builders of portfolio balance models have...

This paper studies the international propagation of sovereign debt default. We posit a two-country economy where capital constrained banks grant loans to firms and invest in bonds issued by the domestic and the foreign government. The model economy is calibrated to data from Europe, with the two...