“When it rains,it pours”: Fiscal policy,credit constraints and business cycles in emerging and developed economies

Fiscal procyclicality, meaning co-movement between government expenditure and macroeconomic fundamentals, is an important feature of business cycle dynamics for emerging and poor economies. I estimate a panel SVAR to investigate the reasons for fiscal procyclicality. The analysis sheds light on the role of external financial constraints in shaping fiscal policy. My findings suggest that the response of emerging governments to output fluctuations is similar to that of developed governments. However, emerging governments curtail spending in response to increases in the sovereign borrowing rate, which forces their consumption expenditure to act more procyclically. Using counterfactual analysis, I show that the key forces behind fiscal procyclicality are the sensitivity of government spending to international borrowing costs and the procyclical nature of these costs for emerging economies.     

THE SHORT-RUN EFFECTS OF FISCAL POLICY WITH USEFUL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE

This paper examines the short-run effects of changing government expenditure on output, consumption and employment. It attempts to combine the Public-Finance and macroeconomic approaches to the analysis of fiscal policy by introducing government expenditure which is 'useful' in consumption into an ISLM-type macro model which is derived from the singleperiod maximizing decisions of households and firms and which includes a government budget constraint.
The principal conclusion is that the effects of fiscal policy on output and employment depend on the 'efficiency' of government expenditure. The more efficiently government expenditure meets consumption needs, the less effective is fiscal policy to the point where the fiscal-policy multiplier may be negative.     

我国政府支出对人类发展指数影响的经验分析

文章用我国国家财政支出和预算外支出度量政府支出,计算出政府支出的增长率作为我国财政政策变动的代理变量,用我国的人类发展指数度量人类发展状况.对数据整理后,形成政府支出增长率和人类发展指数变动的时间序列.使用计量经济学的方法考察了政府支出变动对人类发展指数变动的影响,在借鉴其他学者对政府支出和经济增长关系研究成果的基础上,得出的基本结论是:在1990-2003年间,我国财政政策的变动和人类发展指数的变动没有显著的相关关系,二者之间也不能相互解释,我国财政政策依然是以拉动经济增长为政策偏向的,考虑财政政策变动的时滞,发现其对我国人类发展指数的影响为负.     

Government spending, capital accumulation and the optimal policy rule: The role of public service capital

In this paper, we modify the Djajić [Djajić, S., 1987. “Government Spending and the Optimal Rates of Consumption and Capital Accumulation,” Canadian Journal of Economics 20, 544–554.] model in such a way that government consumption expenditure provides utility to households via the total stock of government services rather than the government consumption flow alone. By using such a framework, we show that the optimality condition for the public service capital stock is the marginal rate of substitution between public service capital and consumption that equals the intertemporal marginal rate of transformation between the two goods. In addition, we show that the relationship between private consumption and public service capital in a household's utility plays an important role in determining the transitional behavior of relevant variables. We also examine the second-best government consumption expenditure policy. By contrast, in the standard flow specification, e.g., Turnovsky and Brock [Turnovsky, S.J. and Brock, W.A., 1980. “Time Consistency and Optimal Government Policies in Perfect Foresight Equilibrium,” Journal of Public Economics 13, 183–212.], Ihori [Ihori, T., 1990. “Government Spending and Private Consumption,” Canadian Journal of Economics 23, 60–69.], and Turnovsky and Fisher [Turnovsky, S.J. and Fisher, W.H., 1995. “The Composition of Government Expenditure and its Consequences for Macroeconomic Performance,” Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 19, 747–786.], the second-best government consumption expenditure is decided on the basis that the marginal utility of consumption is equal to the discounted sum of the marginal utility of the government's flow spending.     

地区差异、财政支出与居民消费

笔者利用跨期优化理论导出实证方程,然后运用1998年~2006年中国省级面板数据进行估计,并分析各地区政府财政总支出及其功能性分类支出对当地居民消费的影响。研究表明:1.地区差异对地方财政支出对居民消费的效应有重要影响。地方财政总支出对居民消费是一种不显著的挤出效应,这种挤出效应因不同地区、不同时期而不同;2.在国家实施积极财政政策时期,只有西部地区其他支出对居民消费有显著的挤出效应,其他地区的其他功能性分类财政支出对居民消费的效应均不显著;在国家实施稳健性财政政策时期,功能性分类财政支出对居民消费的影响随地区不同而不同。     

政府支出与居民消费:替代或互补——基于非线性有效消费函数的实证

以非线性有效消费函数为基础,笔者构造了一个政府支出与居民消费的跨期替代模型,并利用1978年～2004年相关数据,实证研究了我国政府支出与居民消费的关系.研究结果表明,在短期内,我国政府支出与居民消费呈互补关系;但在长期内,我国政府支出与居民消费呈替代关系,即政府支出挤占居民消费支出.因此,在短期内,政府可以通过增加支出增加居民消费以提高社会总需求;但在长期经济均衡时,政府不宜采用支出政策来实现长期经济目标.     

Monetary–fiscal policy interactions and fiscal stimulus

Increases in government spending trigger substitution effects—both inter- and intra-temporal—and a wealth effect. The ultimate impacts on the economy hinge on current and expected monetary and fiscal policy behavior. Studies that impose active monetary policy and passive fiscal policy typically find that government consumption crowds out private consumption: higher future taxes create a strong negative wealth effect, while the active monetary response increases the real interest rate. This paper estimates Markov-switching policy rules for the United States and finds that monetary and fiscal policies fluctuate between active and passive behavior. When the estimated joint policy process is imposed on a conventional new Keynesian model, government spending generates positive consumption multipliers in some policy regimes and in simulated data in which all policy regimes are realized. The paper reports the model's predictions of the macroeconomic impacts of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's implied path for government spending under alternative monetary–fiscal policy combinations.     

Fiscal policy under a minimum‐time objective

In an endogenous growth model, we characterize the fiscal policy driven by a minimum‐time objective of economic development. We find that in equilibrium government should levy the highest possible consumption taxes, reduce public expenditures to the lowest possible level, and keep labor income tax rate and capital income tax rate satisfy a substitution relationship at the balanced budget constraint. We also identify the condition under which income tax rate should be set to zero. We further find that the equilibrium fiscal policy is equivalent to the growth‐maximizing fiscal policy, whereas it generally deviates from the welfare‐maximizing fiscal policy. We hence identify a circumstance where setting the policy goal of reaching an economic‐performance target as soon as possible cannot be justified in the sense of maximizing the welfare of households.     

Dynamics of Macroeconomic Adjustment with Growth: Some Simulation Results *

This paper examines the impact of several macroeconomic policies, both demand and supply management policies, on economic activity within a small macroeconomic simulation model. The model is based on a standard analytical framework that underlies adjustment policies in developing economies (Des). The standard approach has been to use aggregate government expenditure as an instrument of fiscal policy to shock economic activity in a DE, with a negative dynamic response typically observed. In the context of such a small macroeconomic simulation model we decompose government expenditure into consumption and investment expenditure. Simulation exercises with and without model-consistent expectations throw up some contrasting results in the sense that fiscal policy can influence output positively through the effects of public sector investment on private investment in a DE such as India. [F43, E62]     

The macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy in a stochastically growing economy

This paper develops a stochastic model of endogenous growth with productive government expenditure. Herein, we specify the CES production function according to recent empirical evidence. The elasticity of substitution plays a key role in determining macroeconomic performance and the effectiveness of fiscal policy under uncertainty. Results demonstrate that a large elasticity of substitution provides a large expected growth rate and also large volatility of the growth rate. Regarding these effects, the growth-maximizing tax rate and welfare-maximizing tax rate under uncertainty are larger or smaller than those of deterministic economy according to the elasticity of substitution.     

Spillover effects of fiscal policy in a monetary union: Why do fiscal instruments matter?

Using a two‐country DSGE model, we analyse the spillover effects of fiscal policy in a monetary union. Based on a non‐Walrasian labour market with a labour force participation decision and involuntary unemployment and a detailed fiscal sector, we focus on the relative cross‐border effects of different kinds of fiscal shocks (government expenditure and tax shocks). Among the major lessons from this analysis, five general and striking results are worth highlighting : (1) spillover effects differ widely according to the fiscal instrument, (2) all fiscal instruments produce positive spillover effects on foreign GDP except a rise in government consumption, (3) the response of unemployment is not always negatively correlated with the response of output (4) the different fiscal shocks trigger different effects on foreign inflation and the term of trade, which implies heterogeneous interest‐rate and trade channels, and (5) a more accommodative monetary policy and a scenario of ‘fiscal dominance’ alter greatly the effects of fiscal policy shocks.     

Non-Keynesian Effects of Government Expenditure on Output in Bulgaria: An HP Filter Approach

A large body of recent studies has explored the presence of non-Keynesian fiscal policy effects in advanced European economies, while relevant empirical sources on post-communist economies are scarce. In the context of the constraints imposed by the SGP, it is crucial for EU New Member States and acceding countries to estimate the macroeconomic impact of discretionary fiscal intervention. This article focuses on the effects of government expenditure on short-term output in the Bulgarian economy a few years prior to EU accession. It finds that government investment affects real growth in a Keynesian fashion while transfers and public consumption exhibit non-Keynesian behaviour. The cyclically adjusted components of the general government budget, computed by HP filter, form the basis of the analysis. The results support the conclusions of relevant studies about advanced European economies.     

经济增长、经济政策与公司业绩关系的实证研究

本文以1995年至2004年上市公司为样本,考察了经济增长、经济政策与公司业绩之间的关系。通过构筑IS-LM模型,本文测算了我国的各项财政政策与货币政策乘数,以量化我国宏观经济政策的变化,并在此基础上,研究了经济增长、经济政策对公司会计业绩和股票报酬的影响,发现经济政策显著影响公司会计业绩与股票报酬,但不同的经济政策对会计业绩和股票报酬的影响不尽相同;另外,我们还发现,在控制了经济政策因素后,经济增长并没有和公司业绩相背离。本文的发现为诠释我国股市是否是宏观经济的"晴雨表"提供了一个新的研究视角。     

政府生产性支出对产出-资本比的影响——基于中国经验的研究

在国际学术界,尽管有许多经济学家在宏观经济模型框架下研究政府支出对经济增长的影响,但是很少有人从理论和实证角度研究政府支出对产出-资本比的影响,而产出-资本比的提高对发展中国家经济增长至关重要。本文利用政府提供公共物品生产函数,分析政府生产性支出的增加对税前和税后产出-资本比的影响,认为存在着一个能使产出-资本比最大化的最优政府生产性支出规模。在此基础上,本文进行的实证研究结果表明:(1)在我国国家财政生产性支出中,财政基本建设支出与产出-资本比弱正相关,而教育支出和科学研究支出与产出-资本比强正相关;(2)在我国地方财政生产性支出中,财政基本建设支出和产出-资本比弱负相关,财政教育支出和产出-资本比强正相关,而财政科学研究支出与税后产出-资本比强负相关。     

Fiscal Autonomy and Total Government Expenditure: An Austrian Case-study

The ongoing debate on the efficiency of a federal system versus a centralized system has lead to a diverse and unclear empirical picture of the effects of fiscal decentralization on public sector growth. For analyzing these effects it is crucial to consider the sub-national decision power on taxing and spending. In the current paper, we test for the effects of fiscal autonomy on total government expenditure using time series from 1955 to 2007 for Austria. Determinants of government expenditure are economic growth, fiscal illusion of policy makers, and the unemployment rate. We additionally account for different degrees of sub-national fiscal autonomy. Our econometric results suggest that the often-hypothesized dampening effects of fiscal autonomy cannot be corroborated for the Austrian system.     

财政支出结构扭曲与居民消费——基于中国省级面板数据的实证研究

基于1997-2009年省级面板数据,分别从总量和结构两个角度对财政支出与居民消费的关系进行了经验分析。结果表明：第一,从总量角度出发,地方财政支出对居民消费具有挤入作用,说明财政支出的规模较为合理;第二,从结构角度出发,地方财政支出对居民消费具有较大的挤出作用,说明财政支出的结构严重扭曲;第三,各类财政支出对居民消费产生了不同效应,经济建设支出、民生支出和行政管理支出对居民消费具有挤出效应,科技支出与财政支农支出对居民消费具有挤入效应。     

Optimal Nonlinear Income Taxation with Habit Formation

It has recently been shown that incorporating “keeping up with the Joneses” preferences into a prototypical two‐ability‐type optimal nonlinear income tax model leads to higher marginal tax rates for both types of agents. In particular, the high‐skill type faces a positive marginal tax rate, rather than zero as in the conventional case. In this paper, agents’ utility functions are postulated to exhibit “habit formation in consumption” such that the prototypical two‐ability‐type optimal nonlinear income tax model becomes a dynamic analytical framework. We show that if the government can commit to its future fiscal policy, the presence of consumption habits does not affect the standard results on optimal marginal tax rates. By contrast, if the government cannot precommit, the high‐skill type will face a negative marginal tax rate, while the low‐skill type’s marginal tax rate remains positive.     

我国稳健财政政策中的赤字问题

稳健财政政策中的财政赤字问题存在较多争议,本文从理论上分析了稳健财政政策并不排斥财政赤字,并对我国1998年以来财政政策的方向进行了定量测算,提出我国稳健财政政策的关键是将财政收入、财政支出增长速度控制在经济潜在增长速度。     

RE-EXAMINING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF STABILISATION POLICY

This paper develops an alternative international macroeconomic model for evaluating the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policy in stabilising national income under fixed and floating exchange rates. It encompasses national output and income, saving, investment, money and capital flows and linkages between the exchange rate, price levels and real interest rates consistent with international parity conditions. It demonstrates that the nature of government spending is pivotal to the effectiveness of fiscal policy, revealing that, ceteris paribus , higher public consumption expenditure contracts national income and depreciates the exchange rate, whereas higher productive public investment spending has opposite effects. The framework also shows that the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policy as macroeconomic policy instruments is not ultimately dependent on the exchange rate regime.     

财政支出、税收与经济增长

This paper assesses the effect of fiscal policy on economic growth in an AK model with endogenous labor supply. It is found that the structure of taxation and government expenditure could affect the long-run growth rate through their effect on households’ labor-leisure choice, saving-consuming choice and the proportion of government expenditure to GDP. Barro’s (1990) plausible result that the growth rate and the income tax rate have an inverted-U relationship does not always hold. In addition, based on the panel data of 31 provinces from 1997 to 2007, we investigate the link between components of government productive expenditure and economic growth. It is found that the productive expenditure does not always have a positive effect on the growth rate, and its effect exhibits regional differences. The reason is that there is an excess amount of the government productive expenditure in China or the efficiency of the government productive expenditure may be too low.