Economic analyses of corporate finance, money, and sovereign debt are largely considered separately. I introduce a novel corporate finance framing of sovereign finance based on the analogy between fiat liabilities for sovereigns and equity for corporations. The analysis focuses on financial constraints at the country level, making explicit the trade-offs involved in relying on domestic versus f…
This paper investigates the factors that determine governments’ decisions to employ sovereign Sukuk over conventional bonds; the research is based on a sample of 143 Sukuk and 602 conventional sovereign bonds issued in 16 OIC countries between 2000 and 2015. The results depict that the nations that have developed financial markets, higher credit quality, and strong economic/financial prospect…
We propose a model of sovereign debt in which countries vary in their level of financial development, defined as the extent to which they can issue debt denominated in domestic currency in international capital markets. We show that low levels of financial development generate the “debt intolerance” phenomenon that plagues emerging markets: it reduces overall debt capacity, increases credit…
We show that sovereign debt impairments can have a significant effect on financial markets and real economies through a credit ratings channel. Specifically, we find that firms reduce their investment and reliance on credit markets due to a rising cost of debt capital following a sovereign rating downgrade. We identify these effects by exploiting exogenous variation in corporate ratings due to …
In the midst of global uncertainty, the ?investment grade? rating achievement at the end of 2011 and early 2012 has boosted optimistic sentiment to the surge of foreign capital flows and the decrease of borrowing cost for domestic investment activities. Empirical studies showed that this achievement would decrease the spread of sovereign bonds significantly along with the decline of probability…