Sovereign debt defaults: insights from history

Abstract

History provides many insights to address the issue of sovereign debt defaults. This article first presents a detailed account of defaults in historical perspective. It then discusses the solution devised in the past to address sovereign debt crises and sets these into perspective with today's answers when crises occur. Finally, the paper stresses the role of history when events under study don't occur frequently and when archival data may add a new light to understand the process of crises resolution. The imp…