In Defense of Public Debt

• Acknowledgments


• Chapter 1. Introduction


• Chapter 2. Debt in Service of the State


• Chapter 3. States and the Limits of Borrowing


• Chapter 4. Democratization and Globalization


• Chapter 5. Caveat Emptor


• Chapter 6. Managing Problem Debts


• Chapter 7. Successful Consolidation


• Chapter 8. Warfare to Welfare


• Chapter 9. Cycles of Debt


• Chapter 10. Oil and Water


• Chapter 11. Missed Opportunities


• Chapter 12. Debt to the Rescue


• Chapter 13. COVID-19


• Chapter 14. Conclusion


• References

Barry Eichengreen is George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of several earlier books published by Oxford University Press, including Golden Fetters, Exorbitant Privilege, Hall of Mirrors, and The Populist Temptation.

Rui Esteves is Professor of International Economics and International History at the Geneva Graduate Institute. He specializes in monetary and financial history, straddling the fields of international finance, institutional economics, and public finance. His research provides perspective on the globalization 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.

Asmaa El-Ganainy is Deputy Division Chief at the International Monetary Fund's Institute for Capacity Development (European and Middle Eastern Division). Previously, she contributed to the IMF's surveillance, lending, research, and capacity development work at the European and Fiscal Affairs Departments. Her experience has covered wide range of countries, including advanced, emerging and low-income countries. She has also contributed to the IMF's work on several crisis cases, including Greece at the height of the 2010 European sovereign debt crisis. She has published in the fields of sovereign debt, public finance, capital flows, and labor markets.

Kris James Mitchener is Robert and Susan Finocchio Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University. His research focuses on financial crises, economic growth, exchange-rate regime choice, and monetary economics, and has appeared in the leading scientific journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, and Economic Journal. He served as editor-in-chief of Explorations in Economic History from 2015 to 2020.