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High Public Debt in Currency Crises: Fundamentals versus Signalling Effects

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  • Missale, Alessandro
  • Benigno, Pierpaolo

Abstract

This Paper examines how public debt, government credibility and external circumstances affect the probability of exchange rate devaluations in a three-period open-economy version of the Barro-Gordon (1983) model with nominal public debt. Public debt creates a link between current and future policy actions: resisting a crisis may enhance or undermine the sustainability of the exchange-rate regime depending on whether the government's reputation or fundamentals ? i.e. the level of public debt ? are critical for sustainability. The focus is on the impact of public debt, debt maturity and government credibility on the expected devaluation for the current and future periods. This allows us to identify factors affecting the short-term interest rate and the forward rate and hence to derive predictions on the level and the slope of the term structure of interest rates.

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  • Missale, Alessandro & Benigno, Pierpaolo, 2001. "High Public Debt in Currency Crises: Fundamentals versus Signalling Effects," CEPR Discussion Papers 2862, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:2862
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    3. Alexis Cruz-Rodriguez, 2013. "Choosing and Assessing Exchange Rate Regimes: a Survey of the Literature," Revista de Analisis Economico – Economic Analysis Review, Universidad Alberto Hurtado/School of Economics and Business, vol. 28(2), pages 37-61, October.
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    5. Eichler, Stefan & Karmann, Alexander & Maltritz, Dominik, 2009. "The ADR shadow exchange rate as an early warning indicator for currency crises," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 1983-1995, November.
    6. Carlos Carvalho & Tiago Fl´orido & Eduardo Zilberman, "undated". "Transitions in Central Bank Leadership," Textos para discussão 657, Department of Economics PUC-Rio (Brazil).
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    11. Rodríguez López, Mª A., 2002. "Crisis de credibilidad de la peseta en las bandas del SME. Una aplicación del Modelo de Markov con saltos de régimen," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 20, pages 599-626, Diciembre.
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    13. Giancarlo Marini & Giovanni Piersanti, 2012. "Models of Speculative Attacks and Crashes in International Capital Markets," CEIS Research Paper 245, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 24 Jul 2012.
    14. Bernhard Herz & Hui Tong, 2008. "Debt and Currency Crises—Complements or Substitutes?," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(5), pages 955-970, November.
    15. Carlos David Ardila-Dueñas & Hernán Rincón-Castro, 2019. "¿Cómo y qué tanto impacta la deuda pública a las tasas de interés de mercado?," Borradores de Economia 1077, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    16. Biswajit Mohanty & N.R. Bhanumurthy, 2014. "Exchange Rate Regimes and Inflation: Evidence from India," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 311-332, June.
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