IMF Working Papers

Instruments of Debtstruction: A New Database of Interwar Debt

By Nicolas End, Marina Marinkov, Fedor Miryugin

October 25, 2019

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Nicolas End, Marina Marinkov, and Fedor Miryugin. Instruments of Debtstruction: A New Database of Interwar Debt, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2019) accessed September 21, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

We construct a new, comprehensive instrument-level database of sovereign debt for 18 advanced and emerging countries over the period 1913–46. The database contains data on amounts outstanding for some 3,800 individual debt instruments as well as associated qualitative information, including instrument type, coupon rate, maturity, and currency of issue. This information can provide unique insights into various policies implemented in the interwar period, which was characterized by notoriously high debt levels. We document how interwar governments rolled over debts that were largely unsustainable and how the external public debt network contributed to the collapse of the international financial system in the early 1930s.

Subject: Bonds, External debt, Financial institutions, Government debt management, Public debt, Public financial management (PFM), Securities

Keywords: Bonds, Central bank, Central bank exposure, Coupon rate, Debt contract, Debt management matter, Debt management practice, Debt maturity structure, Debt Policy, Economic History, Global, Gold standard, Government debt management, Longer-term maturity debt, Macroeconomics, Maturity, Public Finance, Rate of return, Securities, Short-term debt, Structure of debt, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    47

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2019/226

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA2019226

  • ISBN:

    9781513514550

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941

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