Publications

06 Dec 2020
Working Paper Summaries

'Repayment-by-Purchase' Helps Consumers to Reduce Credit Card Debt

Keywords: by Grant E. Donnelly, Cait Lamberton, Stephen Bush, Zoe Chance, and Michael I. Norton

July 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Fresh Start? Peru's Legacy of Debt and Default (A)

By: Julio J. Rotemberg and Lisa Lewis

Considers the situation facing Alberto Fujimori as he takes office in 1990. Pays particular attention to Peru's long history of international borrowing, default, and renegotiation. This history suggests that the costs imposed by foreigners on Peru when it failed to... View Details

Keywords: History; International Finance; Sovereign Finance; Economy; Borrowing and Debt; Peru

November 2021
Article

Borrower Leakage from Costly Screening: Evidence from SME Lending in Peru

By: Irani Arraiz, Miriam Bruhn, Benjamin N. Roth, Claudia Ruiz-Ortega and Rodolfo Stucchi

We provide evidence that commercial lenders in Peru suffer leakages in their loan approval process. Leveraging a discontinuity in the loan approval process of a large bank, we find that receiving a loan approval from the bank causes loan applicants to receive offers... View Details

Keywords: Information Spillovers; SME Lending; Financial Inclusion; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Small Business; Information; Peru

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January 2004 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Redesigning Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanisms

By: Mihir A. Desai, Christina Pham, Julia Stevens and Kathleen Luchs

How should the debt of sovereign countries be restructured when countries approach default? Anne O. Krueger of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is proposing a new approach to sovereign defaults: the Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism (SDRM). The SDRM would... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Globalized Economies and Regions; International Finance; Laws and Statutes; Latin America; Asia; Mexico

August 1998 (Revised January 2000)
Teaching Note

Mexico in Debt TN

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Teaching Note for (9-797-110) and (9-700-051). View Details

Keywords: Mexico

Article

Inflation and Taxes in a Growing Economy with Debt and Equity

By: M. Feldstein, Jerry R. Green and Eytan Sheshinski

Our tax system was designed for an economy with little or no inflation. The current paper shows that inflation causes capricious changes in the effective rate of tax on capital income and therefore in the real net rate of return that savers receive. This is not only a... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Inflation and Deflation; Economy

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fall 2010
Article

Lawsuits and Empire: On the Enforcement of Sovereign Debt in Latin America

By: Faisal Z. Ahmed, Laura Alfaro and Noel Maurer

The re-occurring phenomenon of sovereign default has prompted an enormous theoretical and empirical literature. Most of this research has focused on why countries ever chose to pay their debts (or why private creditors ever expected repayment). The problem originates... View Details

Keywords: Lawsuits and Litigation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Sovereign Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Debt Securities; Motivation and Incentives; Markets; Equity; Banking Industry; Latin America

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May 2004 (Revised July 2008)
Teaching Note

Brazil 2003: Inflation Targeting and Debt Dynamics (TN)

By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

Teaching Note to (9-704-028). View Details

Keywords: Inflation and Deflation; Borrowing and Debt; Brazil

13 Oct 2010
Research & Ideas

How Government can Discourage Private Sector Reliance on Short-Term Debt

financial institutions. “Most people agree that the financing of large financial intermediaries put the larger financial system at risk” Can the government do anything to discourage short-term borrowing by the private sector? HBS... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Financial Services

April 1977
Background Note

Choice of Debt Securities: Maturity and Call Provisions

By: Jay O. Light

Keywords: Financial Instruments

June 1985 (Revised August 1994)
Background Note

U.S. Government Debt Market and the Structure of Interest Rates, The

Concerns U.S. Government Debt Market and various conventions used to depict the structure of interest rates. View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Bonds; Interest Rates

June 2010
Article

A Gap-Filling Theory of Corporate Debt Maturity Choice

By: Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson and Jeremy C. Stein

We argue that time-series variation in the maturity of aggregate corporate debt issues arises because firms behave as macro liquidity providers, absorbing the large supply shocks associated with changes in the maturity structure of government debt. We document that... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Decision Choices and Conditions; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Liquidity; Investment Return; Government and Politics

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: Companies Must Forget—and Borrow

effective business strategies. Companies might ultimately find more power in adopting a nuanced approach that borrows tested traditional tactics and combines them with fresh, new ideas, said Bharat N. Anand,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Education; Advertising

April 1990 (Revised January 1994)
Case

Mexico: Escaping from the Debt Crisis?

Explores how Mexico found itself in the debt crisis that exploded in 1982 and how the de la Madrid administration (1982-88) followed by the Salinas government (1988 on) devised policies by which to resolve the macroeconomic imbalances. Describes the economic and... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Macroeconomics; Mexico

16 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

A Comparative-Advantage Approach to Government Debt Maturity

Keywords: by Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson & Jeremy C. Stein

April 2007 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Aid, Debt Relief, and Trade: An Agenda for Fighting World Poverty (A)

By: Laura Alfaro, Eric D. Werker and Renee Kim

At the 2005 Group of Eight summit, world leaders agreed to relieve the world's poorest countries' debt burdens and double aid to Africa by 2010. The announcement raised questions whether debt relief would really help the poor. By examining past aid trends and policies... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Borrowing and Debt; Capital; International Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Poverty; Welfare; Africa

2014
Working Paper

Saving More to Borrow Less: Experimental Evidence from Access to Formal Savings Accounts in Chile

By: Felipe Kast and Dina Pomeranz

Poverty is often characterized not only by low and unstable income, but also by heavy debt burdens. We find that reducing barriers to saving through access to free savings accounts decreases participants' short-term debt by about 20%. In addition, participants who... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Poverty; Borrowing and Debt; Chile

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July 2002 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Restructuring Bulong's Project Debt

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Michael Kane

Preston Resources, a small Australian gold mining company, bought the Bulong nickel mine for A$319 million in November 1998 and financed the acquisition by issuing a US$185 million (A$294 million) project bond. At the time, mining had been underway for several months,... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Projects; Restructuring; Bonds; Borrowing and Debt; Business Startups; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Valuation; Mining Industry; Australia