Elekdag, Selim, Gelos, Gaston, (2015), “Emerging Market Corporate Debt in Foreign Currencies”, IMF Direct, 1 October Debt held by firms in emerging market economies in a currency other than their own poses extra complications these days. When the U.S. Fed does eventually raise interest rates, the accompanying further strengthening of the U.S. dollar will mean an emerging market’s own currency will depreciate against the higher value of the U.S. dollar, …Read More

AV Catão, Luis, C. Mano, Rui, (2015), “Measuring the interest premium for past default”, Voxeu, 29 September Sovereign governments re-entering capital markets after debt renegotiations pay an interest rate premium for past defaults. This column presents new evidence that suggests earlier studies have underestimated this premium. This is partly due to the narrow credit history indicators used in previous studies as well as the narrow data coverage. Correcting for these problems, a sizeable …Read More

Gopinath, Gita, Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem, Karabarbounis, Loukas, Villegas-Sanchez, Carolina, (2015), “Low interest rates, capital flows, and declining productivity in South Europe”,  Voxeu, 28 September Joining the Eurozone was once a near unquestionably good idea. Now, the costs of joining the monetary union are under close scrutiny. This column takes a slightly different tack, presenting an alternative perspective on how joining the euro has impacted productivity in southern Europe. It turns out that capital wasn’t allocated efficiently across firms …Read More