Debt bearing capacity In times of low yields and the prospect of rising yields, I asked myself if the european countries can ceteris-paribus cope with rising yields. Is there a way to calculate the effect of rising yields (ignore growth etc. for the time beeing), calculate a break-even yield where the debt burden becomes to much to cope. I thought about calculating the effect via government bond indices and the primary budget. Are there research papers about this?
There’s a huge literature on this topic. I would start by looking at the IMF Fiscal Monitor, and see what is interesting. Their research papers will refer to other papers that can be pursued. IMF Fiscal Monitor page.

Otherwise, you can search for papers on “fiscal sustainability.” As a disclaimer, I am not a fan of most the literature. This paper by Scott Fulwiler discusses interest rates and sustainability, and it critiques some of the technical issues in the literature - link to paper.

In any event, there is no “magic tipping point” for default. It is up to the government involved to decide at what point interest costs are excessive, and whether they will default rather than keep going. There have been almost no default of floating currency sovereigns, so there is no data set to work with. (Most sovereign defauits have occurred when they borrow in another currency; the euro area is discussed below.)

The euro area countries face a particular problem that is not really an issue for other developed countries: they do not have control of their domestic interest rates. Their debt may be issued at high spreads versus other euro interest rates, and so a default becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy (as seen in Greece). Most of the “fiscal sustainability” literature assumed that a country controls the interest rate it borrows at, so the situation is much less risky.