This policy network will focus on three main challenges. First, rising debt levels and growing risks of debt distress. In advanced economies, both public and private debt levels are higher than at any point in the past 150 years. Also, emerging markets and developing countries are increasingly indebted both at home and abroad. In the coming years, debt sustainability will therefore remain a major concern, which is intimately linked to the development of interest rates. Should global rates continue to rise, a new wave of sovereign defaults is a possible scenario.

Second, we are witnessing the rise of new creditor powers. China, in particular, has become an important global creditor over the past 20 years. But also India or Arab countries are increasingly prone to lend and invest across borders. Such “Southern” creditors often rely on state-owned banks and state investment funds; they develop new types of lending contracts that blend elements of official and private finance; and they often export their capital via tax havens. These trends are not well understood. Relatedly, we are seeing new regional lending facilities spring up in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, and new crisis fighting tools, such as the growing network of central bank swap lines by the People’s Bank of China. Taken together, international finance is becoming more heterogeneous and multipolar.

These developments have major implications for the international financial architecture and give rise to new, pressing policy questions. Will the rise of China accelerate financial globalization or rather contribute to reversing it? Will international lending be increasingly politicized in the coming years? How can incumbent institutions like the IMF or the Paris Club be reformed to adapt to the new more multipolar order? How can the more heterogeneous global lending markets be regulated and monitored? How can governments around the world deal with the growing debt burdens? And how can debt crises be resolved more effectively, especially in cases where a large share of the debt is held by official creditors like Western central banks or Chinese state-owned banks?

The International Lending and Sovereign Debt RPN will bring together leading researchers and policymakers interested in these questions. Its main aim is to learn, discuss with each other, and produce new knowledge that can be shared with policymakers and the general public - via research papers, policy reports and columns on voxeu.org. If funding permits, the aim is to meet at least once per year, probably in Europe.

RPN Members

Mark Aguiar

Professor of Economics Princeton University

RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Cristina Arellano

Senior Economist Federal Reserve Board of Minneapolis; Adjunct Professor University of Minnesota

Fellow, International Macroeconomics and Finance / RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Javier Bianchi

Senior Research Economist Federal Reserve Board of Minneapolis

RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Fernando Broner

Senior Researcher ICREA Universitat Pompeu Fabra; Research Professor Pompeu Fabra University; Adjunct Professor Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Fellow, International Macroeconomics and Finance / RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Giancarlo Corsetti

Pierre Werner Chair and joint Professor, Department of Economics and Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies European University Institute

Fellow, Monetary Economics and Fluctuations / Fellow, International Macroeconomics and Finance / RPN Member, European Economic Architecture / RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Aitor Erce

RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Rui Esteves

Professor of International Economics and History Geneva Graduate Institute, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID)

Anna Gelpern

Professor of Law Georgetown University; Nonresident Senior Fellow Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)

RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Mitu Gulati

Perre Bowen Professor of Law and John V. Ray Research Professor of Law University of Virginia

RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Galina Hale

Fellow, International Macroeconomics and Finance / RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Sebastian Horn

Research Associate Kiel Institute for the World Economy, University of Munich

Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan

Neil Moskowitz Endowed Professor of Economics University Of Maryland

Fellow, Macroeconomics and Growth / Fellow, International Macroeconomics and Finance / RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Alberto Martin

Senior Researcher Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI); Senior Adviser, DG Research European Central Bank; Research Professor ICREA Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Fellow, International Macroeconomics and Finance / RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Philippe Martin

Vice President, Europe Centre for Economic Policy Research; Chair French Council of Economic Analysis; Professor of Economics and Dean School of Public Affairs Sciences Po Paris - University

CEPR Vice President / Fellow, International Macroeconomics and Finance / Fellow, International Trade and Regional Economics / Fellow, Macroeconomics and Growth / RPN Member, Spatial Disparities and Policy / RPN Member, European Economic Architecture / RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Gernot Müller

Professor of Economics University of Tübingen

Fellow, International Macroeconomics and Finance / RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Ugo Panizza

Vice President, New Ventures Centre for Economic Policy Research; Professor of Economics and Pictet Chair Geneva Graduate Institute, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID)

Fellow, International Macroeconomics and Finance / RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt / RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Carmen Reinhart

Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Fellow, International Macroeconomics and Finance / RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Kenneth Rogoff

Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics Harvard University

RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Beatrice Weder di Mauro

President Centre for Economic Policy Research; Professor of International Economics Geneva Graduate Institute, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID)

Mark Wright

Senior Vice President and Research Director Federal Reserve, Bank of Chicago

RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Chenzi Xu

Assistant Professor Finance, Graduate School of Business Stanford University

Jeromin Zettelmeyer

Director Breugel

Fellow, International Macroeconomics and Finance / RPN Member, European Economic Architecture / RPN Member, International Lending and Sovereign Debt

Past events