The changing world of sovereign debt crises: on a new age of sovereign defaults and debt restructuring

This paper describes different forms of sovereign defaults and identifies changes since the mid-1990s. It shows why the topic is of relevance for international and comparative political economy but also points to possible reasons why the empirical literature is often inconclusive. Sovereign defaults stand for very different phenomena that are characterized here on the basis of eleven different criteria. The paper builds on three new datasets that are assessed descriptively and point towards quite significant changes over time. Economic characteristic of sovereign defaults, but also the legal and political-institutional context and changing conditions in international financial markets all indicate that there have been quite important changes that should be taken up by research in political economy.