The Capital Structure of Nations
62 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2016 Last revised: 14 Jun 2017
There are 3 versions of this paper
The Capital Structure of Nations
The Capital Structure of Nations
The Capital Structure of Nations
Date Written: June 6, 2017
Abstract
When a nation can finance its investments via foreign-currency denominated debt or domestic-currency claims, what is the optimal capital structure of the nation? Building on the functions of fiat money as both medium of exchange, and store of value like corporate equity, our model connects monetary economics, fiscal theory and international finance under a unified corporate finance perspective. With frictionless capital markets both a Modigliani-Miller theorem for nations and the classical quantity theory of money hold. With capital market frictions, a nation's optimal capital structure trades off inflation dilution costs and expected default costs on foreign-currency debt. Our framing focuses on the process by which new money claims enter the economy and the potential wealth redistribution costs of inflation.
Keywords: Sovereign Financial Structure, Money, Domestic-currency Liabilities, Foreign-currency Debt
JEL Classification: E41, E44, E62, F34, G32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation