Sovereign Risk, Credibility and the Gold Standard: 1870-1913 versus 1925-31

Maurice Obstfeld and Alan Taylor

Department of Economics, Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley

Abstract: What determines sovereign risk? We study the London bond market from the 1870s to the 1930s. Our findings support conventional wisdom concerning the low credibility of the interwar gold standard. Before 1914 gold standard adherence effectively signalled credibility and shaved up to 30 basis points from country borrowing spreads. In the 1920s, however, simply resuming prewar gold parities was insufficient to secure benefits. Countries that devalued before resumption were treated more favorably, and markets scrutinized other signals. Public debt and British Empire membership were important determinants of spreads after World War One, but not before.

Keywords: Gold standard; sovereign risk; credibility; monetary regimes; exchange rates (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-01-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (54)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/6f15n0h0.pdf;origin=repeccitec (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Sovereign risk, credibility and the gold standard: 1870-1913 versus 1925-31 (2003)
Working Paper: Sovereign Risk, Credibility and the Gold Standard: 1870-1913 versus 1925-31 (2003)
Working Paper: Sovereign Risk, Credibility and the Gold Standard: 1870-1913 versus 1925-31 (2003)
Working Paper: Sovereign Risk, Credibility and the Gold Standard: 1870-1913 versus 1925-31 (2003)
Working Paper: Sovereign Risk, Credibility and the Gold Standard: 1870-1913 versus 1925-31 (2002)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cdl:econwp:qt6f15n0h0

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Department of Economics, Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lisa Schiff ().