Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : the case for a new international relief effort / Barry Herman, José Antonio Ocampo, and Shari Spiegel -- The analytical framework for debt policy. Sovereign debt : notes on theoretical frameworks and policy analyses / Joseph E. Stiglitz ; Reasons for limited sovereign risk management and how to improve it / Stijn Claessens ; Is domestic debt the answer to debt crises? / Ugo Panizza -- Crisis experiences when most credits were private. The 1980s crisis in syndicated bank lending to sovereigns and the sequence of mechanisms to fix it / Luis jorge Garay Salamanca ; Excess returns on emerging market bonds and the framework for sovereign debt restructuring / Shari Spiegel ; The Russian Federation : from financial pariah to star reformer / Sergei Gorbunov ; The Argentinean debt : history, default, and restructuring / Mario Damill, Roberto Frenkel, and Martín Rapetti -- Crisis experiences when most credits were official. Paris club : intergovernmental relations in debt restructuring / Enrique Cosío-Pascal ; Ethiopian debt policy : the long road from Paris Club to the MDGs / Matthew Martin ; Human development advocacy for debt relief, aid, and governance / Henry Northover -- Political economy and institutional reform. The political economy of the SDRM / Brad Setser ; How CACs became boilerplate : governments in "market-based" change / Anna Gelpern and Mitu Gulati ; Why the code of conduct for resolving sovereign debt crises falls short / Barry Herman ; Taking stock of proposals for more ordered workouts / Jürgen Kaiser ; How to rethink sovereign bankruptcy : a new role for the IMF? / Patrick Bolton and David A. Skeel, Jr. -- Conclusion. Conclusion : towards a comprehensive sovereign bankruptcy regime / Barry Herman, José Antonio Ocampo, and Shari Spiegel.

Examining historical sovereign debt crises in developing and transition economies, this text concludes that these occurrences have been economic and social catastrophes and are likely to happen again in the future due to the 'boom and bust' nature of economic cycles.