Why do emerging economies borrow short term? /
Fernando Broner, Guido Lorenzoni, and Sergio Schmukler.
- Washington, D. C : World Bank, 2004.
- 63p ; 27 cm.
- Policy research working papers ; no. 3389 .
Also available online. "Broner, Lorenzoni, and Schmukler argue that emerging economies borrow short term due to the high risk premium charged by international capital markets on long-term debt. They first present a model where the debt maturity structure is the outcome of a risk-sharing problem between the government and bondholders. By issuing long-term debt, the government lowers the probability of a liquidity crisis, transferring risk to bondholders. In equilibrium, this risk is reflected in a higher risk premium and borrowing cost. Therefore, the government faces a trade off between safer long-term borrowing and cheaper short-term debt. Second, the authors construct a new database of sovereign bond prices and issuance. They show that emerging economies pay a positive term premium ( a higher risk premium on longe-term bonds than on short-term bonds). They show that emerging economies pay a positive