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Sovereign Default and International Trade

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  • Charles Serfaty

    (Banque de France)

Abstract

Evidence suggests that sovereign defaults disrupt international trade. As a consequence, countries that are more open have more to lose from a sovereign default and are less inclined to renege on their debt. In turn, lenders should trust more open countries and charge them with lower interest rate. As a consequence of those lower rates, the country should also borrow more debt as it gets more open. This paper formalizes this idea in a sovereign debt model á la (Eaton and Gersovitz in Rev Econ Stud 48(2):289–309, 1981), proves these theoretical relations and quantifies them in a calibrated model. This paper also provides evidence suggesting a causal relationship between trade and debt, using gravitational instrumental variables from Feyrer (Am Econ J Appl Econ 11(4):1–35, 2019) as a source for exogenous variation in trade openness. The results suggest that, when imports-to-GDP ratio increases by 1%, debt-to-GDP ratio also increases by 1%, and default risks do not increase. These last results are consistent with the quantitative results from the calibrated model.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles Serfaty, 2024. "Sovereign Default and International Trade," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 72(4), pages 1449-1501, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:imfecr:v:72:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1057_s41308-023-00230-x
    DOI: 10.1057/s41308-023-00230-x
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F34 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Lending and Debt Problems
    • F41 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Open Economy Macroeconomics
    • F44 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - International Business Cycles
    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt

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