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‘Propitious contrast’: Romanian borrowing in a Balkan mirror, 1878–1913

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2022

Andreea-Alexandra Maerean ,
Maja Pedersen  and
Paul Sharp Open the ORCID record for Paul Sharp [Opens in a new window]
Andreea-Alexandra Maerean*
Affiliation:
European Commission (DG Economic and Financial Affairs)
Maja Pedersen*
Affiliation:
University of Southern Denmark
Paul Sharp*
Affiliation:
University of Southern Denmark
*
Andreea-Alexandra Maerean, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, European Commission, Rue de la Loi 170 / Wetstraat 170, 1049 Brussels, Belgium, email: [email protected]
Maja Pedersen and Paul Sharp, Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark, email: [email protected]; [email protected].
Maja Pedersen and Paul Sharp, Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark, email: [email protected]; [email protected].
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Abstract

How was Romania able to borrow cheaply on the international capital markets before World War I? We explore this within the context of its three southeast European neighbours, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, using a novel dataset of monthly bond prices from the Berlin and London stock exchanges. A comparison of country characteristics and panel data analysis suggests that Romania was able to borrow under more favourable conditions due to its abundant natural resources and desirable exports.

Keywords

creditworthinessemerging marketsRomaniasovereign debt

JEL classification

E5: Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit N2: Financial Markets and Institutions G1: General Financial Markets E4: Money and Interest Rates
Type
Article
Information
Financial History Review , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , April 2023 , pp. 100 - 123
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Association for Banking and Financial History

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Footnotes

We would like to thank the journal editor, two excellent anonymous reviewers, Philipp Ager, Alina Blejan, Carsten Burhop, Stéphanie Collet, Peter Sandholt Jensen, Markus Lampe, Eoin McLaughlin, Kris Mitchener, Matthias Morys, Stefan Nikolic, Martin Pontzen and John Turner for feedback, help and suggestions. We would also like to thank Minhua Wan at the London Stock Exchange Project, Yale School of Management for providing access to some of the data from London used in this article, and to Manuel Marx for his conscientious collection of much of the Berlin data, the latter of which was in part made possible thanks to a generous Exploratory Travel and Data Grant from the Economic History Association. Finally, thanks are also due to Frederikke Frehr Kristensen for excellent research assistance.

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