Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the decision-making process of the Paris Club, the main forum for bilateral sovereign debt restructuring in the world. A detailed database was constructed from the archives of the Paris Club for the period 1980-2004. The thesis provides a background about the principles, evolution and activity of the Paris Club. The decision-making of the Paris Club is modeled as the interaction of a demand for debt restructuring by a debtor with the supply of debt restructruring by the creditor community. The estimations use a Heckman sample-selection model. The main conclusions are that although theree are differences in creditor participation and behavior, overall, the Paris Club's decision to grant debt restructuring depends on economic variables, especially on the amount of debt of the debtor. Political variables are not significant determinants of Paris Club restructurings

Details