The role of fiscal policy in Japan: a quantitative study

This paper analyzes the role of fiscal policy in the recent slowdown in Japan. A dynamic general equilibrium model is developed in which fiscal policy can have both expansionary effects (through increasing returns) and contractionary effects (through the increase of public debt and tax burden). A version of the model is calibrated to the Japanese economy and is used to measure the importance of both these effects. We find that, under a wide range of parameters, net expansionary effects are quantitatively small, thus suggesting a limited role for fiscal stabilization     

Decomposing local fiscal multipliers: Evidence from Japan

Recent studies on fiscal policy use cross-sectional data and estimate local fiscal multipliers along with spillovers. This paper estimates local fiscal multipliers with spillovers using Japanese prefectural data comparable with the national accounts. We estimate the local fiscal multiplier on output to be 1.7 at the regional level. We decompose the regional fiscal multiplier into the prefectural fiscal multiplier and the region-wide effect. Converting the latter component into the spillover, we find that the spillover is positive and small in size. We also decompose the regional fiscal multiplier on output into multipliers on the expenditure components. Our estimates suggest that there are crowding-in effects of government spending on consumption and investment. Moreover, we find that the regional fiscal multiplier on absorption exceeds 2.0 and that the spillover to absorption is considerable in contrast to the spillover to output.     

Government fiscal projection and debt sustainability

This paper reconsiders Japan’s fiscal sustainability. We investigate whether a simulation conducted under the political constraint imposed by a fiscal reaction function supports the official projection. First, we obtain Japan’s fiscal reaction function by estimating the response of the primary surpluses to the past debt for a panel data set of 23 OECD countries. Next, we investigate the political feasibility of the official projection using our estimated reaction function. When the Cabinet Office criterion is used for the debt-to-GDP ratio, the government can attain the policy target of nonnegative fiscal surpluses and realize fiscal sustainability. Notably, the negative growth-adjusted bond yield and the high growth rate contribute to this finding.     

The link between fiscal decentralization and poverty – Evidence from Indonesia

This paper aims to clarify the relationship between fiscal decentralization and poverty using Indonesian provincial-level data from 2001 to 2018 by way of panel data estimation. This paper circumvents the potential endogeneity problem between the interest variable to provide an unbiased estimated impact of the critical variables. The results provide robust evidence that the implementation of Indonesian fiscal decentralization contributes to poverty reduction outcomes. This paper also proposes a policy set based on the estimation result to the central government in handling the non-linear relationship between fiscal decentralization and poverty.     

Japan's fiscal policy and fiscal reconstruction

This paper investigates the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy and the fiscal reconstruction movement in Japan. We first summarize Japan's fiscal policy in recent years and discuss advantages and disadvantages of government deficits. Next, we investigate the macroeconomic effects of Japanese fiscal policy and evaluate the plausibility of non-Keynesian effects. We also analyze the possibility of the crowding-in effect of fiscal policy and investigate the spillover effects of deregulation. Finally, we discuss political constraints in the fiscal reconstruction attempts and propose some measures for successful fiscal reforms in the near future.     

Sustainability of the fiscal imbalance and public debt under fiscal policy asymmetries in Sri Lanka

This paper investigates the sustainability of Sri Lanka’s fiscal imbalance and public debt. To test for sustainability of the fiscal imbalance, the study applies a symmetric ARDL (autoregressive distributive lag) technique to estimate a government intertemporal budget constraint. And to test for sustainability of public debt, it applies an asymmetric ARDL technique to estimate a fiscal reaction function, which allows for differential responses in the primary budget balance depending on whether shocks to regressors are positive or negative. Annual data for the period 1961–2018 are used in the estimations. The results indicate that Sri Lanka’s fiscal management is inconsistent with strong form sustainability, which requires that expenditures not grow faster than revenues. However, estimation of the fiscal reaction function finds robust evidence for fiscal policy asymmetries. Evidence emerges that Sri Lanka’s fiscal policy stance is procyclical with strong stabilization tendencies in economic expansions that are not sustained in contractions. Against upsurges in the debt-to-GDP ratio, authorities are found to pursue fiscal consolidation, thus suggesting weak form sustainability.     

Factor decomposition of sub-provincial fiscal disparities in China

With the help of fiscal statistics on sub-provincial public finances in the second half of the 1990s, this paper explores the hotly debated issues pertaining to fiscal disparities in China during this period, and the various factors driving the changes in fiscal disparities. Among them are economic factors (e.g., GDP per capita, economic structure), and institutional factors (e.g., urban–rural dichotomy, ethnic issues).We adopt Morduch and Sicular's general, regression-based approach to decompose fiscal disparity with respect to per capita fiscal expenditure (Morduch & Sicular, 2002). The empirical results indicate that among all the statistically significant factors, GDP per capita and urban–rural dichotomy are the two most important variables that affects fiscal disparities, with a total contribution of 60%. Other relatively important factors are economic structure and population density. Several features of fiscal expenditure in China identified by our empirical findings together with their corresponding policy implications are discussed.     

Chronological changes of government sectors’ fiscal policies and fiscal sustainability in Japan

Since the end of the 1990 s, the sluggish growth of Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP) and the mired fiscal state of its public sector have provoked consternation about its public sector’s fiscal sustainability. Therefore, I estimated the fiscal reaction functions (stemming from Bohn, 1998a, 2008) with time-varying parameters for all Japan’s government sectors (for 1976Q2–2020Q1), i.e., the general government (GG), the central government (CG), the whole of the local governments (WLG), and the whole of the social security funds (WSSF), to chronologically assess their fiscal sustainability using four different models, including a least-squares with breakpoints model and a state-space model with the Kalman filter. My results demonstrate that (1) the least-squares with breakpoints model outperformed the others, and (2) although CG, WLG, and WSSF often sustainably managed their finances during the analysis term, GG has failed to implement a sustainable fiscal policy from the mid-1990 s (3) CG and WSSF adjusted their fiscal postures according to Japan’s economic state. Fiscal severity caused WLG to change its fiscal posture.     

Local fiscal multipliers and population aging in Japan

This study examines how the effectiveness of fiscal policy depends on population aging. To this end, this study estimates the local fiscal multipliers in Japan. Results suggest that the estimated local fiscal multiplier on output is larger in non-aged areas than aged areas, and that the effects on the number of workers are not statistically significant in either area type. Additionally, the multipliers on private investment are only higher than one in non-aged prefectures. Results also indicate that the multiplier generated by an increase in government investment is larger than that in government consumption. These results indicate fewer slack resources in aged areas that can be mobilized in response to increased government spending.     

The growth strategy of Abenomics and fiscal consolidation

Using a general equilibrium model with an overlapping generation structure, this study examines the impacts of a new Abenomics growth strategy on fiscal consolidation in Japan. Our simulation yielded the following results. (i) It is difficult to achieve the government target of fiscal consolidation by the year 2020 even when assuming that the growth strategy has the desired effects. (ii) Moreover, further economic and fiscal reforms are required from 2030 to 2070 because of accelerated population aging. (iii) However, population policy and an extended retirement age contribute to significant improvements in Japan’s fiscal condition after 2070. (iv) In contrast, the promotion of productivity and the labor force participation rate have a lesser impact on fiscal reconstruction.     

取消农业税对新疆财政的影响及对策研究

从2005年起,新疆在逐步实施农业税改革的基础上正式实施取消全部农业税、牧业税和除烟叶外的农业特产税政策,这项政策的实施对减轻农民负担,提高农业竞争力等具有重要意义。但由于农业税在新疆财政中的比重较大,取消农业税将使基层政权财力不足问题更加突出。本文客观地分析了新疆财政状况,认为解决新疆财政面临的困难应寻求更多的中央转移支付,完善转移支付制度,提高新疆财政的自我造血能力。     

Cooperative fiscal policy at the zero lower bound

This paper investigates the use of fiscal policy in response to a large negative aggregate demand shock which may push the global economy into a liquidity trap. Fiscal policy may be an effective tool to respond to a liquidity trap, but its international spillover effects may operate quite differently from its domestic effects. We derive the optimal cooperative fiscal response to a global liquidity trap in a two country world economy. Surprisingly, we find that the optimal fiscal spending response for a partner country to a negative aggregate demand shock in a source country may be negative. If fiscal policy can be chosen under policy commitment, the optimal response involves current fiscal expansion combined with future fiscal contraction, after the liquidity trap has ended.     

Rules,discretion, and international monetary and fiscal policy coordination

This paper considers the implications of international policy coordination when both monetary and fiscal policy choices are endogenous. We show that a movement from insular monetary commitment to international monetary policy coordination will, if fiscal policies are not coordinated, produce higher output and public expenditure levels at the expense of higher inflation rates. We also show that the concurrent coordination of monetary and fiscal policies raises output and inflation while lowering public expenditure relative to a regime of monetary coordination alone. We conclude that the arguments for concurrent monetary and fiscal policy coordination fail to have a clear-cut theoretical basis.     

日本国土综合开发财政政策对中国主体功能区建设的启示

中国国家十二五规划纲要提出要实施主体功能区战略。日本针对经济发展过程中产生区域问题所采取的6次全国国土综合开发规划的财政政策,值得借鉴。中国在推进主体功能区建设过程中,应当运用差别化税收政策引导重点开发区域承接优化开发区域的产业转移,加大对重点开发区域基础设施的投入,发挥财政转移支付制度对地方财力的平衡作用。     

逆周期财政政策能够控制政府债务风险吗?——理论变迁与经验数据分析

文章基于经济理论变迁,梳理了近代以来西方预算平衡与政府债务理论变迁的主要趋势,探讨了古典经济学年度预算平衡理论与凯恩斯财政革命后的周期预算平衡理论,及其对政府债务风险管理的影响。在此基础上,文章使用跨国面板数据实证分析了发展中国家财政周期选择对政府债务风险的影响,研究发现采取逆周期财政政策的国家能够更好地约束债务风险,该实证结果在不同债务警戒标准下均保持稳健。当前,为了有效约束财政风险,我国应避免进入顺周期财政陷阱,建立可控债务风险的逆周期财政调控机制。     

财政赤字货币化与美国金融危机的政治经济学分析

受由新冠疫情引发的经济衰退影响,美国启动了以增发国债和超级量化宽松为基础的数轮纾困政策,以央行购买国债推动经济复苏的财政赤字货币化政策自2008年后再一次引起了全球的注意.本文以美国为刺激经济复苏施行的财政政策和货币政策为出发点,从经济基础、理论基础、制度演变、财政赤字和国债规模变化等角度分析了财政赤字货币化的形成原因...     

Monetary vs. fiscal policy: Some evidence from vector autoregression for India

This paper investigates the relative importance of monetary and fiscal policy for India. Unlike previous studies, a more general approach of multivariate vector autoregression has been employed. Analysis of the causality results based on the joint F-tests and the dynamic multipliers based on the variance decompositions and the impulse response functions unambiguously support the Keynesian stance on the importance of fiscal policy. There is very little evidence of exogeneity of money supply, undermining the validity of the monetarist proposition. On the contrary, Indian monetary policy appears to have accommodated changes in government expenditure, prices and output, lending support to the structuralist-Mundellian views.     

Foreign debt,global liquidity,and fiscal sustainability

We empirically investigate fiscal sustainability by comparing countries in the different economic groups with a dataset covering 180 countries during the period from 1980 to 2015. As the OECD countries have higher international debt ratio than other countries, they have higher probability to be exposed to global risk factors. Non-OECD countries turn out to be more fiscally solvent than OECD countries due to their limited access to international financial market. However, we also find that better access to international liquidity increases fiscal sustainability within the sample of OECD countries, while it does not improve the fiscal solvency in case of non-OECD countries.     

The fiscal constraint to restructuring firms in transition economies

Restructuring transition enterprises has been slow. Many firms remain unprivatized and the new owners (of privatized firms) take inadequate measures. Various arguments often have been brought forth to explain this sluggish adjustment. This paper identifies a structural barrier at the governmental level: The government designs the privatization program which leads to restructuring. However, transition governments are in a fiscal squeeze because restructuring relocates costs from firms to the public budget. Nevertheless, the deficit should be kept within narrow limits. This problem is analyzed within a stylized dynamic model. This paper finds that the fiscal constraint can delay or halt privatization. Careful sequencing of policy and a low ratio of wage-to-profit taxes can remedy the problem. This paper benefitted substantially from the comments of Ebbe Yndgaard and from his collaboration on a parallel project.