Risk Academy, a Nexortium programmeFinance and EconomicsDepartment of Public Finance and Development Economics

Debt sustainability, fiscal risk, contingent liabilities, commodity revenue and subnational finance

Public finance and sovereign debt

Public finance and sovereign debt covers government budgets, debt and fiscal risk: debt sustainability analysis, contingent liabilities, the fiscal costs of disasters and climate change, debt transparency, commodity and revenue risk, subnational finance and sovereign wealth funds, and how shocks reach the public balance sheet.

Open the twin builder See the courses

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Public finance and sovereign debt, drawn as term-structure curves: 0 primary courses open, 0 in preparation, 2 approved for authoring and 1 also taught here, across 8 subtopics and 2 connected disciplines. Courses: RAS-424 L3 approved for authoring, RAT-245 L3 approved for authoring, RAN-317 L2 also taught here.20L1L2L3L402
Public finance and sovereign debt at a glance. Drawn as term-structure curves.
  • Open, 0
  • In preparation, 0
  • Approved for authoring, 2
  • Also taught here, 1
  • Subtopics, 8
Course codes from the curriculum; study levels L1 to L4.
Twin builder and simulatorHouston and the Ship Channel5 twin generators, 12 layers, 3 instruments
courses open now
0
in preparation
0
approved for authoring
2
power plants, 11,875 MW
30

Twin figures for Houston and the Ship Channel, counted from its layers at their stated dates.

Twin builder and simulator.

For Public finance and sovereign debt: the faculty's twin of Houston on the planet map, the globe and in 3D. Pick a generator, switch layers, run the instruments; every layer prints its provider and date.

Houston and the Ship Channel: a flat plan of the faculty twin. Terrain 0 to 66 m; 30 power plants, 11,875 MW; 7 refineries and chemical works; 2 port land; 29 named works; 154 named industrial sites; Surface water extent, OPERA DSWx (HLS): live, loads in the twin; Built-up and settlement extent, HBASE 2010: live, loads in the twin. Contours every 10 metres from the elevation grid; power plants as marks; refineries, terminals and industrial sites as marks.
Houston and the Ship Channel, United States. Flat plan of the same data: relief as contours from the inline grid, the plants by capacity, the industrial points by kind and the numbers below. The 3D twin opens on devices with WebGL once its data and library have been checked.
  • Terrain 0 to 66 m
  • 30 power plants, 11,875 MW
  • 7 refineries and chemical works
  • 2 port land
  • 29 named works
  • 154 named industrial sites
  • Surface water extent, OPERA DSWx (HLS): live, loads in the twin
  • Built-up and settlement extent, HBASE 2010: live, loads in the twin
Credits and dates per layer are listed under the stage. Relief in the twin is exaggerated ×1.5 for legibility.

Drag to move, right drag or Shift with a drag to turn and tilt, Ctrl with the wheel to zoom. Keyboard: arrows move, Shift with arrows turn and tilt, + and - zoom, 0 resets, V steps through the views, Escape clears.

Flat plan of the same data: relief as contours from the inline grid, the plants by capacity, the industrial points by kind and the numbers below. The 3D twin opens on devices with WebGL once its data and library have been checked.

The map loads from this site as it nears the view (MapLibre 6.9.1, checked by hash).

The discipline in brief.

The discipline teaches the debt dynamics equation and fan charts under interest, growth and exchange-rate shocks, the IMF and World Bank LIC-DSF (2017) and the IMF sovereign risk and debt sustainability framework (2022), fiscal risk statements with contingent liabilities, disaster and climate fiscal costs with pre-arranged finance, debt transparency and restructuring, and sovereign wealth fund rules; no sovereign indicator row is admitted for the Academy yet, so the twin's sovereign arcs are labelled design scenarios. A graduate can run a debt projection under a stated shock and read its sustainability thresholds, write a fiscal risk statement that names its contingent liabilities, and size the pre-arranged finance a disaster liability needs.

This area covers government budgets, debt and fiscal risk: debt sustainability analysis, contingent liabilities, the fiscal costs of disasters and climate change, debt transparency, commodity and revenue risk, subnational finance and sovereign wealth funds. It is taught in the department of Public Finance and Development Economics, Faculty of Finance and Economics, through courses still to be authored and 1 more that also teach it.

What the discipline covers.

8 subtopics, taught across its courses and labs.

Courses
0 open, 0 in preparation
Levels
None yet
Labs
Named when the courses are authored
  • Debt sustainability analysis
  • Fiscal risk and contingent liabilities
  • Climate and disaster fiscal risk
  • Debt transparency
  • Commodity and revenue risk
  • Subnational fiscal risk
  • Sovereign wealth funds
  • Public investment management

Not yet taught by a course: Fiscal risk and debt sustainability analysis; Climate, insurance and sovereign debt as a coupled system.

What is changing now.

Recent developments in public finance and sovereign debt, each with its source; sources checked on 16 October 2026. Summaries are short readings of the source; follow the link for the full account.

The faculty hub.

News and research as they are published, per discipline, with the faculty's other tools.

The newest research, preprints, news and humanitarian reports for Public finance and sovereign debt, each with its source and date, load here. Open the research and news hub

No course yet.

No course has this as its primary discipline yet. It is listed so the gap stays visible.

The courses on its authoring list are named below.

2 courses approved for authoring.

Approved for authoringno enrolment and no achievement until authored and reviewed

  1. RAS-424Climate, Insurance and Sovereign Debt: a Coupled SystemApproved for authoringL3 Advanced, about 10 hours (estimate)
  2. RAT-245Fiscal Risk and Debt Sustainability AnalysisApproved for authoringL3 Advanced, about 12 hours (estimate)

Courses from other disciplines.

These courses count in their own primary discipline and also teach this one; they do not count towards its achievement as primary courses.

Also taught here1 courses that count in another discipline

  1. RAN-317Risk Management in the Public SectorIn preparationNexus, L2 Intermediate, 10 hours (estimate), primary in Risk-informed public policy

What you can earn here.

Methods, frameworks and hazards.

From the Academy's risk taxonomy: the discipline's own entries and those of its primary courses, with how many courses teach each.

Hazard families

  1. Sovereign debt distressscope

Pathways that teach it.

  1. Academy flagshipNexus-Based Risk Management flagship pathway0 of its 20 courses are taught here.
  2. Role pathwayPolicy maker1 of its 11 courses are taught here.

How technology helps and what risk it brings.

Where the subject is worked on.

The two Foundry systems where it is practised.

  • Nexus FoundryDSS systemDebt sustainability scenariosScenarios room
  • GRIx systemFiscal and macroeconomic dataData room

Nexus Foundry system pages describe what each system and its rooms are designed to do; they are not a service on offer, and studying here gives no access to them.

Disciplines it depends on.

Terms used on this page.

Around Public finance and sovereign debt.

Public finance and sovereign debt

Prepare with a related course.

Open courses in connected disciplines teach the methods this discipline will build on.

Browse the course catalogue Back to Department of Public Finance and Development Economics
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