Countries that go through a debt crisis are likely to experience a significant and long-lasting loss in output, according to an International Monetary Fund paper published on Friday.

Davide Furceri and Aleksandra Zdzienicka, the paper's authors, use panel data from 154 countries between 1970 and 2008 to assess the short- and medium-term impact of debt crises on GDP. The authors note that although it is a common view that large increases in public debt lead to sovereign defaults, few studies have