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EU Debt Write Off

This page presents the results of a simulation conducted by students at ESCP Europe Business School. The aim was to uncover the amount of interlinked debt between Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain, Britain, France, and Germany; and then see what would happen if they attempted to cross cancel obligations.

The results were astounding:

  • The countries can reduce their total debt by 64% through cross cancellation of interlinked debt, taking total debt from 40.47% of GDP to 14.58%
  • Six countries – Ireland, Italy, Spain, Britain, France and Germany – can write off more than 50% of their outstanding debt
  • Three countries – Ireland, Italy, and Germany – can reduce their obligations such that they owe more than €1bn to only 2 other countries
  • Ireland can reduce its debt from almost 130% of GDP to under 20% of GDP
  • France can virtually eliminate its debt – reducing it to just 0.06% of GDP

For more information download the full report: The Great EU Debt Write Off (.pdf)

Before
Before
After
After


Images by Soapbox

The idea

The idea is very simple – if Portugal owes Ireland €0.34bn of short term debt, and Ireland owes Portugal €0.17bn, we can write off Ireland’s obligations and leave Portugal with a reduced debt of €0.17bn.If you are both a debtor and a creditor you do not need money to settle claims. Rather than require additional funds to deal with choking debt, why not write it off?
The diagrams above show the before and after situation, based on analysis done by students. The simulation itself took place on May 17th 2011 and involved three separate trading rounds.

Main data sources

Resources for instructors

If you would like to replicate this simulation in your classroom, email me for a zip file. It includes:

  • All of our data (including sources and notes)
  • The starting positions for each country
  • The results table to provide real time information to students
  • A summary sheet for students to complete each round
Please let us know how you get on!

Further reading

Media coverage

 

For more details or media enquiries please contact Anthony J. Evans.

Posted in pedagogy.

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By aje – August 24, 2012

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