BANK LOANS VERSUS BOND FINANCE: IMPLICATIONS FOR SOVEREIGN DEBTORS

摘要

This article analyses the optimal choice between bank loans and bond finance for a sovereign debtor. It shows that if borrowers can be 'publicly monitored' by a rating agency that disseminates the information about their creditworthiness, their choice between bank loans and bond finance is determined by the trade-off between two deadweight costs: the crisis cost of default and the cost of debtor moral hazard. If crisis costs are large, sovereigns use bank loans for short-term financing and bond issuance for long-term financing. I also demonstrate that state contingent debt and IMF intervention can improve welfare.