Government Debt: Constraints and Choices
April
21-22
2017

Event Recap
The conference presented theoretical and quantitative papers about default, maturity, dilution, and inflation, as well as fiscal policy design and modeling.
Papers represented a diversity of approaches in terms of model assumptions and features, but a common thread will be the use of modern dynamic macroeconomic theory to understand historical events and contemporary choices.
This conference was cosponsored by the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy at Columbia University.
We gratefully acknowledge additional support for this program provided by Donald R. Wilson, Jr., AB ’88.
Agenda
Friday, April 21, 2017
The Optimal Maturity of Government Debt
David Evans, University of Oregon
Discussant: Hanno N. Lustig
Contagion of Sovereign Default
Cristina Arellano, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Discussant: Pierre Yared
Take the Short Route: An Equilibrium Default and Debt Maturity
Manuel Amador, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Zhiguo He, Fuji Bank and Heller Professor of Finance, Booth School of Business
Forward Guidance in the Yield Curve: Short Rates vs. Bond Supply
Dimitri Vayanos, London School of Economics
Annette Vissing-Jorgensen
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Government Debt Management: The Long and the Short of It
Albert Marcet, Institut d'Anàlisi Economica CSIC
Discussant: George-Marios Angeletos
Self-Fulfilling Debt Crises: A Quantitative Analysis
Alessandro Dovis, Penn State University
Discussant: Jesse Schreger
A Model of Safe Asset Determination
Arvind Krishnamurthy, Professor of Finance, Stanford University School of Business
Fernando Alvarez, Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics
Lunch and Keynote
Dave Chung, Office of Debt Management, U.S. Department of the Treasury
Money as a Unit of Account
Martin Schneider, Professor of Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Discussant: V. V. Chari
Inflating Away the Public Debt: An Empirical Assessment
Ricardo Reis, London School of Economics
John H. Cochrane, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution at Stanford University