As bonds left untied make us reflect on the places where we never went, this chapter offers an economic, historical and political meditation on a bond between Portugal and Rothschild that was not tied. By discussing what was not and what might have been, the story offers ways to reflect on what...

This paper studies the relationship between sovereign spreads and the interaction between debt composition and debt levels in advanced and emerging market countries. It finds that in emerging market countries there is a significant correlation between spreads and debt levels. This correlation,...

We provide a comparison of salient organizational features of primary markets for foreign government debt over the very long run. We focus on output, quality control, information provision, competition, pricing, charging, and signaling. We find that the market setup experienced a radical...

This paper is the transcript of the lunch speech delivered at the seminar on sovereign risk hosted by the BIS in January 2013. Full publication: "http://ssrn.com/abstract=2420000" Sovereign Risk: A World Without Risk-Free Assets?

We provide a comparison of salient organizational features of primary markets for foreign government debt over the very long run. We focus on output, quality control, information provision, competition, pricing, charging and signaling. We find that the market set up experienced a radical...