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Til Debt Do Us Part: The U.S. Capital Market and Foreign Lending, 1920-1955

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  • Barry Eichengreen
Abstract
This paper analyzes U.S. experience with foreign lending in the half-century from 1920. A first question raised by this experience is what ignited the process of U.S. foreign lending. I conclude that lending was restrained at the beginning of the period by the debt overhang associated with reparations and by the post World War I disruption of international trade. Intervention by creditor country governments in the form of the Dawes Loan, League of Nations loans to Central Europe and reconstruction of the gold standard system was needed to initiate long-term capital flows. A second question is how to characterize the operation of the U.S. capital market once lending was again underway. I find that while lenders discriminated among potential borrowers and demanded compensation for default risk, they did so insufficiently. Neither an efficient-markets nor a fads-and-fashions model provides an adequate characterization of the data. A third question is whether default in the 1930s made it more difficult for countries to borrow in the 1940s and 1950s. I find no evidence that countries which interrupted debt service in the 1930s found it more difficult to borrow subsequently than did countries which maintained debt service continuously. Rather, default reduced access to private portfolio capital flows for defaulting and nondefaulting countries alike.

Suggested Citation

  • Barry Eichengreen, 1987. "Til Debt Do Us Part: The U.S. Capital Market and Foreign Lending, 1920-1955," NBER Working Papers 2394, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2394
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    1. Robert E. Lipsey & Mario Schimberni & Robert V. Lindsay, 1988. "Changing Patterns of International Investment in and by the United States," NBER Chapters, in: The United States in the World Economy, pages 475-558, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    1. Acharya, Viral V. & Rajan, Raghuram G. & Shim, Jack B., 2024. "Sovereign debt and economic growth when government is myopic and self-interested," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. Newbery, David M.G. & Wright, Brian D., 1989. "Commodity Bonds with Put Options for Consumption Smoothing by Commodity-Dependent Exporters," CUDARE Working Papers 198500, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    3. Viral V. Acharya & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2013. "Sovereign Debt, Government Myopia, and the Financial Sector," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(6), pages 1526-1560.
    4. Bulow, Jeremy & Rogoff, Kenneth, 1989. "Sovereign Debt: Is to Forgive to Forget?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 43-50, March.
    5. Ferry, Marin & Raffinot, Marc & Venet, Baptiste, 2021. "Does debt relief “irresistibly attract banks as honey attracts bees”? Evidence from low-income countries’ debt relief programs," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. Viral V. Acharya & Raghuram Rajan & Jack Shim, 2020. "When is Debt Odious? A Theory of Repression and Growth Traps," NBER Working Papers 27221, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Bulow, Jeremy & Rogoff, Kenneth, 1989. "A Constant Recontracting Model of Sovereign Debt," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(1), pages 155-178, February.
    8. Acharya, Viral & Parlatore Siritto, Cecilia & Sundaresan, Suresh, 2022. "Financing Infrastructure in the Shadow of Expropriation," CEPR Discussion Papers 15288, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Acharya, Viral V. & Rajan, Raghuram G. & Shim, Jack B., 2024. "Reprint of “Sovereign debt and economic growth when government is myopic and self-interested”," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).

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