Debt Development

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor

Debt and Development: The Promise, Perils, Policies, and Practices of a Double-Edged Instrument This course provides an “advanced introduction” to debt policy and debt management in developing countries. While the main focus will be on public debt, it will also explain the implications of borrowing by sub-nationals, corporations, and households. The approach will be comprehensive—conceptually, institutionally, geographically, and thematically. The idea is to help students understand how debt works; who borrows and who lends and why; what various good and bad country experiences have taught us; and what the current and forthcoming policy issues around debt financing are. So coverage will span from the macroeconomic drivers of debt and the ways to know whether debt is sustainable, down to the legal and institutional underpinnings of public borrowing. We will delve into evolving issues like debt defaults and debt relief, contingent liabilities, and lending for infrastructure. And we will explain the new generation of financing instruments, notably thematic bonds (green, blue, gender, SDG, sukuk, etc.) and fiscal insurance (against, say, natural disasters and commodity price volatility).