Assessing new perspectives on country risk - BIS Quarterly Review, part 5, December 2004

We examine in a unified framework three recent perspectives on country risk: debt intolerance, original sin, and currency mismatches. We find statistical evidence supporting aspects of all three, though the strength of that support varies considerably across hypotheses and a number of open questions remain. Our evidence is consistent with the view that good domestic macroeconomic and structural policies hold the key to addressing country risk.