.svg){kind=icon}
.svg){kind=icon}
%201.svg){kind=icon}
%201.svg){kind=icon}
.svg){kind=icon}
.svg)
.svg)
Rui Esteves
Rui Esteves is Associate Professor of International History at the Graduate Institute Geneva. He previously held academic positions at the University of Oxford, and Simon Fraser University. He specialised in monetary and financial history, straddling the fields of international finance, institutional economics, and public finance. His research provides perspective on the globalisation of finance, financial crises, sovereign debt, financial market architecture, the choice of exchange rate regimes, and emigrant remittances, as well as rent-seeking, and corruption in public office.
.svg)
Public debt through the ages
The history of sovereign debt evolved over time along with the purposes for which governments borrowed: first State-building, then public-good provision, and most recently social welfare and entitlements. Although many periods when debt-to-GDP ratios rose explosively culminated in funding crises, debasements, and restructurings, less widely appreciated are episodes of successful debt consolidation achieved through rapid growth or budgetary discipline. This article analyses the economic and political circumstances that made these debt consolidation episodes possible.
