Sovereign state-contingent bonds have rarely been issued in practice despite their theoretical benefits. This paper provides support for this apparent sovereign noncontingency puzzle by deriving the impact of GIBs on the upper tail of the distribution of the public debt-to-GDP ratio.
Measured FDI flows behave like portfolio debt flows. Our conclusions have implications for how researchers and policymakers should think about capital controls and the exclusion of measured FDI from such controls.
The introduction of growth-indexed bonds will benefit highly indebted advanced economies and, in the euro area, might provide a partial market-based solution to attain valuable insurance benefits well ahead of a formal fiscal union.