Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series

‘Devaluation, Debt, and Default in Emerging Economies’

Samir Jahjah and Peter Montiel

March 2006, Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series, University of Manchester, No. 70.  Download PDF file (341KB).

Motivated by the experiences of Mexico and Argentina, we explore a model intended to capture the interactions among exchange rate policy, fiscal policy, and default on foreign currency-denominated debt. Our objective is to examine how exchange rate policy affects the supply of short-term debt facing the government. We show that under a conventional soft peg, it can be optimal for the government to choose a level of the exchange rate that may result in partial or complete debt default, as in the Mexican case. Paradoxically, default may also be an equilibrium outcome under a hard peg, as in the case of Argentina, precisely because devaluation is not an option. Multiple equilibria may exist under a soft peg, with one equilibrium featuring a high domestic interest rate, an overvalued exchange rate, a low level of output, and a high default probability. Under a hard peg, however, there is a unique equilibrium.