With age comes immaturity: Do countries with older populations issue shorter maturity debt?

Journal article

Gonca Senel, Mark L. J. Wright
Economics Letters, vol. 209, 2021

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110100

Cite

APA Click to copy
Senel, G., & Wright, M. L. J. (2021). With age comes immaturity: Do countries with older populations issue shorter maturity debt? Economics Letters, 209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110100

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Senel, Gonca, and Mark L. J. Wright. “With Age Comes Immaturity: Do Countries with Older Populations Issue Shorter Maturity Debt?” Economics Letters 209 (2021).

MLA Click to copy
Senel, Gonca, and Mark L. J. Wright. “With Age Comes Immaturity: Do Countries with Older Populations Issue Shorter Maturity Debt?” Economics Letters, vol. 209, 2021, doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110100.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{gonca2021a,
  title = {With age comes immaturity: Do countries with older populations issue shorter maturity debt?},
  year = {2021},
  journal = {Economics Letters},
  volume = {209},
  doi = {10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110100},
  author = {Senel, Gonca and Wright, Mark L. J.}
}

Abstract

Recent work has found that countries with older populations face steeper yield curves and issue shorter maturity debt than do younger countries. We reexamine these findings using a new database of public debt maturity and yields for OECD countries. We first show that the behavior of eurozone countries in the pre-euro period drives these results. Next, including more recent data from the post-euro period, we show that the relationship between population age, maturity, and yield curve slopes disappears. This finding is robust to excluding high-credit-risk countries. Last, we show that these patterns reemerge after the European debt crisis, suggesting that eurozone capital markets have resegmented.

JEL classification: E43; G11; H63

Keywords: Public debt; Debt maturity; Aging; Sovereign default; Eurozone