Fiscal Multiplier and the Size of Government Spending Shock. The Case of the U.S

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the fiscal multiplier depends negatively on the size of the government spending shock. We build our hypothesis on behavioral arguments and check it empirically using U.S. data. In doing so, we adopt a non-linear Local Projection method. We address possible endogeneity issues by using government military spending and illustrate that our results are non-sensible to these concerns. Finally, we limit our analysis to the government consumption multiplier, as our hypothesis suggests strong non-constancy in this respect. We find a strong negative relationship between the government spending multiplier and the size of the shock. Results are robust to different subsamples, fiscal foresight, business cycle, and different identification schemes.

Keywords: Fiscal multipliers, non-linearity, rational inattention, local projection