Are the Effects of Fiscal Changes Different in Times of Crisis and Non-Crisis? The French Case

Abstract

This paper shows that the impact of changes in budgetary variables on real GDP, investment, consumption and employment varies in sign and magnitude in times of crisis and non-crisis. To this end, a regime-switching process is embedded in standard macroeconomic equations in order to take into account different budgetary regimes.

We find evidence of asymmetric effects for both the multiplier of government expenditure and the fiscal multiplier, with differing effects during the phases of crisis and non-crisis depending upon the level of debt, of the unemployment rate, of the output gap.

Keywords: fiscal policy, Markov-switching, crisis