Description

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The frequency and virulence of recent financial crises have led to calls for reform of the current international financial architecture. In an effort to learn more about today's international financial environment, the authors turn to an earlier era of financial globalization between 1870 and 1913. By examining data on sovereign bonds issued by borrowing developing countries in this earlier period and in the present day, the authors are able to identify the characteristics of successful borrowers in the two periods. They are then able to show that global crises or contagion are a feature of the 1990s which was hardly known in the previous era of globalization. Finally, the authors draw lessons for today from archival data on mechanisms used by British investors in the 19th century to address sovereign defaults. Using new qualitative and quantitative data, the authors skilfully apply a variety of approaches in order to better understand how problems of volatility and debt crises are dealt with in international financial markets.

About the Author

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Paolo Mauro Chief of the Strategic Issues Division in the International Monetary Fund's Research Department. Nathan Sussman is Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Yishay Yafeh is Senior Lecturer in the School of Business Administration and Department of East Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI).