Successful Fiscal Adjustments - Does Choice of Fiscal Instrument Matter?
47 Pages Posted: 13 Nov 2013
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Successful Fiscal Adjustments - Does Choice of Fiscal Instrument Matter?
Successful Fiscal Adjustments. Does Choice of Fiscal Instrument Matter?
Date Written: October 13, 2013
Abstract
We examine fiscal adjustment episodes in 24 OECD countries in order to find how austerity affects debt and growth, and whether the choice of fiscal instrument matters for the results. Influential existing studies argue that spending cuts are more likely to successfully reduce debt and enhance economic growth than tax increases. Our main innovations over these studies are to better account for initial conditions and to employ a novel and more precise measure of actual changes in fiscal policy. We find that whether a fiscal adjustment is successful in reducing debt depends on whether the adjustment was sufficiently large to remove the budget deficit. We find no indication that it matters whether the adjustment is achieved via spending cuts or tax increases, and this conclusion holds also for the effect on economic growth.
Keywords: fiscal adjustment, fiscal consolidation
JEL Classification: H200, H300, H500, H620
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation