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This book explores the economic effects of war reparations, with a focus on how sovereign debt has financed the transfers. Results have varied: from quick repayments of large reparations to catastrophic economic crises. The occurring theme across the book has been that enforcement of debt contracts has important consequences.
List of contents
1. Introduction; 2. A framework for war reparations; 3. Sovereign debt; 4. Napoleonic Wars reparations; 5. Haiti indemnity and sovereign debt; 6. Franco-Prussian War indemnities; 7. Smaller 19th century war reparations; 8. German World War I reparations; 9. Russian and Bulgarian World War I reparations; 10. World War II reparations to the Soviet Bloc.
About the author
Simon Hinrichsen runs investments in emerging market sovereign bonds for a pension fund and has published in journals on history and economics. He is an External Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen where he teaches a course on sovereign debt. He has advised governments and was previously a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics.
Summary
This book explores the economic effects of war reparations, with a focus on how sovereign debt has financed the transfers. Results have varied: from quick repayments of large reparations to catastrophic economic crises. The occurring theme across the book has been that enforcement of debt contracts has important consequences.
Foreword
What happens when countries cannot default on its debt? This history of war reparations shows that state survival trumps economics.
