美国财政赤字、国债问题浅析

作为世界第一大经济体的美国,长期以来饱受债务问题的困扰,而美国的债务问题也给世界经济蒙上一层阴影。本文将介绍财政平衡、财政赤字和国债的基本概念,然后针对美国财政赤字、国债问题进行探讨,分析美国财政赤字的成因、美国国债的作用和对世界的深远影响。     

美国赤字政策演化路径及债务货币化风险研究:基于奥巴马新政背景的分析

本文通过建立分析美国财政政策问题的理论框架,透视当前美国赤字财政政策,同时运用情景模拟多角度分析未来政策的演化路径及债务货币化问题。研究表明,奥巴马新政的赤字财政政策与稳态财政路径相差甚远,美国财政政策已背离稳态水平。进一步财政动态演化路径显示,债务货币化是美国超常规赤字政策的必然选择,由此内生增加美国联邦储备委员会未来通货膨胀调控压力,在美国经济复苏偏离预期的情形下,债务货币化将导致基础货币在未来8年中增加3倍左右,恶性通货膨胀及经济系统性风险很大。对此,我们应高度关注并及时调整相关政策。     

美国国债危机的根源及出路

虽然美国债务危机还没有爆发,但目前的财政赤字和国债规模过大、财政收支结构的刚性特征均阻碍了其财政赤字状况的改善、美元的国际货币地位也非可以永久持续,这使美国国债的可持续性问题面临挑战。在解决方案上,短期内美国政府可以通过技术性违约或者债务货币化将政府债务延后或者隐性处理,但是其代价是巨大的。因此美国应当从中长期根本上解决债务问题,中期需要建立严格的财政制度;长期上则需要协调好各个产业的发展,寻找新的经济增长点。     

国债政策可持续性与财政风险的理论解析

国债政策的可持续性指的是基于某些经济约束条件下的、根据经济发展需要、考虑多种经济要素协调性的国家债务的长期发展战略和模式。国债政策的可持续性与财政风险是一个问题的两个方面。国债政策作为宏观调控的重要手段 ,必须反映经济稳定、持续增长的内在需要 ,并为这种内在需要服务。宏观经济对于国债的负担能力是财政稳定运行的基础 ,也是国债政策作用的现实基础。对国债负担或风险的分析不应局限在某些固定的界线范围 ,而应从各国经济发展的具体情况出发进行研究     

日本政府债务可持续性的实证检验

日本政府债务可持续性受到中日学者的普遍关注。通过对1980～2011年日本国债负担率动态波动特征进行线性与非线性建模分析,发现日本国债负担率是非平稳的,得到日本政府债务是不可持续的结论以及我国应加强国债余额管理、外汇储备资产中国债发行国的政府债务可持续性研究、谨慎持有日本国债等研究启示。     

美国的财政政策能够持续吗?

自1970年代石油危机和1980年代里根政府上台以来,财政赤字就成为美国政府的一种常态。次贷危机的爆发使得美国政府不得不投入大量的财政资源用于救市,这无疑会加剧美国政府的财政赤字。美国政府当前的财政赤字水平能够持续吗?美国政府是否能够不受限制地通过发行国债来进行融资?美联储直接购买长期国债的定量宽松政策能否增强美国财政政策的可持续性?美国能够避免与财政赤字货币化如影随形的通货膨胀吗?请看本文对美国财政政策可持续性的分析。     

民主体制导致美国“财政悬崖”

很多人从经济、财政、金融等不同角度来分析美国"财政悬崖"形成的原因。我认为美国的民主体制是导致美国"财政悬崖"产生的根本原因。2012年11月,美国财政部长盖特纳首次提出解决美国"财政悬崖"问题,关键是要提高美国联邦政府债务上限,这引起了大家对美国联邦政府债务上限问题的关注。美国的债务上限实际上是指美国国会批准的一定时期内美国国债的最大发行额。在1917年之前,每次美国政府需要借款的时候,都要获得国会的授权。从1917年到     

欧债危机与美债危机产生原因及对比分析

从2009年12月全球三大评级机构下调希腊主权评级以来,希腊的主权债务危机愈演愈烈,并且危机产生的影响不断危机到其他国家,至今为止随着意大利及西班牙国债危机逼近,欧元区第二大经济体——法国也开始面临债务风险。已经有迹象显示,市场投资者正在做空法国主权债券,法国债务危机正步步紧逼。同样发生债务危机的还有世界头号经济强国美国。截至2010年底,美国政府债务占GDP的比重已达到92%,在世界范围内已处于高位。2011年5月16日,美国国债触及国会     

日本主权债务问题的可持续性与不确定性研究

自20世纪90年代初期经济泡沫破裂以来,日本经济一直在不断膨胀的主权债务下运行。对失业率、外汇储备、债务结构、产业国际化和宏观税负水平的研究显示,日本的主权债务具有一定的可持续性。但是政策困局、政治乱局和评级危局也导致了日本主权债务问题的不确定性。因此,未来日本主权债务问题的走向取决于可持续性与不确定性的综合影响。就目前的形势判断,日本主权债务问题未来走势的不确定性显著高于可持续性。     

论我国国债规模的适度性分析

自1998年我国实行以国债政策为主体的积极财政政策以来，实现了经济的软着落，取得了积极的效果，我国的国债规模有了迅速的发展，累计国债规模已经达到相当大的水平，这自然引起人们对国债的债务风险问题的关注。本文试图就目前我国国债规模是否适度、国债风险如何以及如何实现国债政策的可持续性发展进行了研究分析。     

Covid-19, Economic Growth and South African Fiscal Policy

Following years of fast-rising debt levels, we show that the Covid-19 crisis worsened an already deteriorating fiscal position in South Africa. To restore fiscal sustainability in the aftermath of the crisis some commentators argue that higher government expenditure will grow GDP sufficiently to stabilise the debt/GDP ratio. We reject this, showing that although a real increase in expenditure stimulates economic growth (a short-run, once-off effect), the public expenditure/GDP ratio exceeds the level at which an increase in the ratio positively impacts growth. We then explore the past efforts of government to maintain or restore fiscal sustainability by estimating a fiscal reaction function using a Markov-switching model. Following the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the budget, we subsequently establish the deficit, expenditure and revenue adjustments that the government will have to make to restore fiscal sustainability. Finally, we consider the merits of introducing a debt ceiling.     

中国地方政府债务违约风险评估——基于债务可持续性分析框架

结合中国地方政府财政反应特征,文章在债务可持续性分析框架中,首次识别了基础盈余主动调整的有效性条件作为分析前提,进而完善了债务不可持续性的定义内涵和度量方法,最终建立了地方政府债务违约风险评估模型。凭借此模型,对中国地方政府债务违约风险进行了评估,主要结论如下：在经济增速不稳定背景下,施行顺周期财政政策的中国地方政府,容易落入基础盈余主动调整无效的境况,因而在对地方政府债务可持续性进行分析时,有必要考虑基础盈余主动调整的有效性;通过检验发现,新构造的债务不可持续概率和条件期望债务空间指标,均能较好反映地方政府债务违约风险,而单纯的债务率指标对地方政府债务违约风险无解释力;在2019年,天津、贵州和青海等地已处于财政疲劳引起的债务不可持续状态,内蒙古等六省的条件期望债务空间不足20%,其余省份的条件期望债务空间仍相对充裕;最后,通过考察债务可持续性的改善渠道又进一步发现,财政透明度的提高可有效降低地方政府债务违约风险。     

Fiscal sustainability in the wake of the economic crisis in Korea

The total amount of government debt was expected to rise sharply over the following several years in the wake of the Korean financial and economic crisis in 1997, raising concern about the sustainability of government deficits and fiscal consolidation. This paper provides an overview of Korea’s fiscal stance after the financial crisis and the policy implications for fiscal consolidation by assessing fiscal sustainability. Sustainability tests are carried out and show that Korean fiscal policy for the period 1970–1999 should be regarded as sustainable. Indicators of sustainability are also measured to that Korean fiscal policy for the period 1970–1996 is sustainable. However, both the primary and tax gap indicators with a sharp rise in the debt ratios are shown to be worsening since 1997 indicating increasingly possible unsustainable fiscal policies. It implies that the current primary deficit is too large and current taxes are too low to stabilize the debt ratio.     

Fiscal sustainability in Japan

This paper investigates fiscal sustainability of Japan by providing a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model that features the low interest rate of the government bond relative to the economic growth rate to mimic the actual data. We evaluate fiscal sustainability by investigating whether the expected path of the debt-to-GDP ratio stabilizes or increases without bound. The debt-to-GDP ratio depends crucially on the projected growth rate and the fiscal policy rule. If the government does not react to the current fiscal crisis, the debt-to-GDP ratio will increase without bound, and then the fiscal policy is not sustainable. If the fiscal rule uses Bohn’s (1998) idea that involves the response of the primary surplus to the debt, sustainability improves. This rule provides a useful and realistic reform plan in the short and long runs.     

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.     

Debt relief and fiscal sustainability

In this paper I analyze the relationship between fiscal policy,aggregate public sector debt sustainability, and debt relief. I develop a methodology to compute the fiscal policy path that is compatible with aggregate debt sustainability in the post-HIPC era. The model explicitly considers the role of domestic debt and quantifies the extent to which future debt sustainability depends on the availability of concessional loans at subsidized interest rates. The working of the model is illustrated for the case of Nicaragua, a country that in 2002 had one of the highest net present value of public external debt to GDP ratios. JEL no. F3, F34, F35.     

美国“财政悬崖”与财政失衡问题研究

"财政悬崖"是美国奥巴马总统面临的最为严峻的挑战,不仅对美国经济复苏是一种打击,而且也会威胁到全球经济复苏。笔者认为,"财政悬崖"是美国财政长期失衡的必然产物,而美国财政失衡根源于其长期运行的债务经济模式。本文阐述了实现美国财政平衡的途径及其对中国财政的启示。     

Fiscal discipline in the European monetary union

This paper explores the question of how national fiscal policies could be conducted within the European Monetary Union. The discussion touches upon this issue in relation to the theory of optimum currency areas; presents the debt sustainability issue in the context of a monetary union; examines briefly the determinants of debt dynamics; and interprets the restraints imposed on national fiscal policies by the Maastricht Treaty. The tentative conclusion is that the creation of the EMU will be associated with smaller size national government sectors.Invited Address at the Thirty-Seventh International Atlantic Economic Conference, Athens, Greece, March 8–15, 1994. Financial support by the Economic Research Center of the Athens University of Economics and Business is gratefully acknowledged.     

Beyond HIPC: What are the Prospects for Debt Sustainability?

Abstract: The pronouncement by the G‐8 Summit at Gleneagles in July 2005 on debt cancellation under the HIPC Initiative, affirmed by the G‐8 Ministers of Finance in Washington in September, should signal the beginning of debt relief for the world's heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC), mostly African. It is expected that debt cancellation should return the beneficiary countries to debt sustainability and afford their governments the fiscal space to invest in basic infrastructure and social services. Countries could significantly enhance their prospects for maintaining debt sustainability mainly by adopting debt management strategies that de‐emphasize excessive borrowing, checking the expansion of unproductive public sector activities and the associated fiscal deficits, financial restructuring to reduce the bias against autonomous capital flows, and taking deliberate actions to expand exports.