Optimal Maturity Structure of Sovereign Debt in Situation of Near Default
Author | : Gabriel Desgranges |
Publisher | : International Monetary Fund |
Total Pages | : 43 |
Release | : 2014-09-12 |
ISBN-10 | : 9781498330435 |
ISBN-13 | : 1498330436 |
Rating | : 4/5 (35 Downloads) |
Download or read book Optimal Maturity Structure of Sovereign Debt in Situation of Near Default written by Gabriel Desgranges and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2014-09-12 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We study the relationship between default and the maturity structure of the debt portfolio of a Sovereign, under uncertainty. The Sovereign faces a trade-off between a future costly default and a high current fiscal effort. This results into a debt crisis in case a large initial issuance of long term debt is followed by a sequence of negative macro shocks. Prior uncertainty about future fundamentals is then a source of default through its effect on long term interest rates and the optimal debt issuance. Intuitively, the Sovereign chooses a portfolio implying a risk of default because this risk generates a correlation between the future value of long term debt and future fundamentals. Long term debt serves as a hedging instrument against the risk on fundamentals. When expected fundamentals are high, the Sovereign issues a large amount of long term debt, the expected default probability increases, and so does the long term interest rate.