The Effects of Fiscal Consolidation and Welfare Composition of Spending on Electoral Outcomes: Evidence from US Gubernatorial Elections between 1978 and 2006

This study attempts to make a contribution to the field of spending aspects of fiscal policy and their impacts on electoral outcome. Due to varying degrees of financial responsibilities and commitments to provide public goods and services, US state governments serve as a perfectly natural laboratory to test the electoral significance of fiscal policies. We adopt a probit model, with several specifications, to determine significant impacts of fiscal consolidation and increases in welfare spending on US gubernatorial elections from 1978 to 2006. The analyses show that voters are more concerned about the increase in debt than current budget deficits. An increase in welfare spending is negatively associated with reelection. Moreover, the impact of taxation on gubernatorial elections turns out to be insignificant. In particular, findings suggest that the political business cycle model does not hold true in US gubernatorial elections. Expansionary fiscal policy right before the election may not have crucial impacts on the chances of an incumbent winning the election.     

央地财政关系：协调失灵与地方政府财政赤字扩张偏向

文章基于央地财政关系协调失灵导致地方财政赤字扩张偏向的理论假设和现实背景,通过构建一个协调博弈理论模型,运用我国1995-2012年省级空间面板数据模型的GS 2 SLS 和System GMM的回归分析,系统研究了“央地财政关系”对地方政府财政赤字扩张偏向的影响机制。研究发现：我国地方政府存在财政赤字决策的相互模仿行为,中央政府存在通过财政协调机制来协调地方政府的财政决策行为,但并不成功。这意味着我国“央地财政关系”确实存在协调失灵,进而导致地方政府财政赤字持续膨胀的经济现象。     

Fiscal policy,business cycles and discretion: evidence from the Western Balkans

While previous research has examined the macroeconomic performance of the New Member States during the boom–bust cycle of the 2000s, very little has been written on the experience of the Western Balkans. In this article we investigate the responsiveness of fiscal policy to business cycles in the Western Balkans, examining whether expenditure moved counter-cyclically and whether a larger proportion of expenditure was ‘discretionary’; that is, related to the political cycle rather than economic conditions. Our results suggest that fiscal policy did not move counter-cyclically in the Western Balkans. Instead, countries overspent in the boom years and then reduced spending as a result of financing constraints during the crisis. Furthermore, the discretionary component of fiscal policy, defined here as spending unexplained by inertia and economic conditions, appears to be somewhat larger in the Western Balkans than in the European Union. This has important policy implications that affect the effectiveness of fiscal policy in dampening economic fluctuations.     

我国积极财政政策"紧缩效应"的形成机制及其检验

积极财政政策的扩张性效果依赖经济周期的阶段性,积极财政政策也有可能通过货币需求的利率渠道和汇率渠道等,产生对于实际产出的紧缩影响.本文利用误差修正模型和时变参数模型,通过估计货币需求相对于实际产出的弹性系数,发现我国的财政政策仅在1996年前体现出显著的"紧缩效应",而在1996年后"紧缩效应"逐渐减弱和消失,这说明在我国宏观经济调控中,积极财政政策和稳健货币政策的组合方式和期限结构发挥了比较稳定的政策效果.     

实证分析:我国菲利普斯曲线失灵与应对财政政策就业效应

1998年至今我国经济呈现出GDP高速增长的态势,但是这种经济的高速增长伴随着的是宏观经济运行的两大不稳定因素,一是物价持续上涨,二是就业形势日益严峻,宏观经济呈现出菲利普斯曲线失灵的特点。本文在运用GDP增长率、失业率和通货膨胀率等相关指标来论证、描述和解析我国菲利普斯曲线失灵现象的基础上,主要对近几年我国政府在应对菲利普斯曲线失灵时所采取的相关反失业财政政策及其就业效应进行了分析,从而为我国政府今后如何继续完善和实施治理失业的财政政策起到一个抛砖引玉的作用。     

Nominal and real volatility as determinants of FDI

This article examines the role of country-specific sources of output and interest rate or exchange rate volatility in driving Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) activities. Building on a dataset with bilateral FDI flows among 24 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economies over the period 1985–2007, we find that nominal and real volatility strongly deter foreign investments. Output and exchange rate volatility matter in particular for the decision whether to invest in a foreign country in the first place. Interest rate volatility mainly influences the amount of foreign investments.     

公共危机与地方财政运行机制的重构——基于财政机会主义的视角

近年来,我国频繁发生大型公共危机,严重影响了民众的生命财产安全与社会经济的可持续发展。我国公共危机防治的困境在一定程度上导源于地方财政的机会主义行为,而我国政府间激励约束机制不合理和财政管理体制不健全则是地方财政机会主义普遍存在的重要根源。从现实来看,地方财政机会主义的普遍存在不仅导致了公共危机的形成,而且加大了公共危机的治理难度,放大了其对社会经济运行的负面影响。为此,我国需要重构地方财政运行机制,建立有效的激励约束机制,合理界分政府间公共危机的防治责任,为地方政府配置有效的财力,并建立完善的地方财政监督机制。     

Argentina's Feeble Recovery: Insights from a Real Business Cycle Approach

Abstract

Argentina’s GDP increased 30% between 2002 and 2005, prompting optimistic assessments that the country had finally left behind its secular stagnation. However, this strong performance followed a sharp decline in economic activity and therefore could be the manifestation of a bounce‐back effect with no lasting impact on Argentina’s mediocre long‐term growth rates. The paper examines this conjecture with the quantitative discipline imposed by a Real Business Cycle methodology and concludes that the 2002–05 expansion was not only a rebound, but also considerably weaker than the model predicts, a finding not consistent with upbeat views about the country’s long‐term prospects.     

财政分权与空气污染——以“省直管县”改革为例的研究

基于财政"省直管县"改革,实证分析了财政分权对空气污染(雾霾)的影响,双重差分模型(DID模型)估计发现,财政分权恶化了空气质量;其次,异质性分析证明,财政分权对空气污染的作用在中西部地区、能源消耗较少省(市、区)和非百强县子样本中更显著;此外,机制分析证实,财政分权通过改变地方财政支出结构和加剧地方政府竞争两个方面作用于空气污染;最后,将财政分权与行政分权比较分析发现,行政分权显著降低了空气污染水平.本文的研究为从环境视角评价行政体制改革提供了思路.     

Macroeconomic volatility and anti-refugee violence in developing countries: Evidence from commodity price shocks

I investigate the effect of macroeconomic (output) volatility on anti-refugee violence in developing countries. Opportunity cost, rapacity, and state capacity theories predict ambiguous effects. For causal inference I leverage output volatility caused by plausibly exogenous commodity price shocks. I find that adverse commodity price shocks increase both violence of natives against refugees and violence between refugees. My results suggest that anti-refugee violence increases during recessions and decreases during economic booms.     

中国货币政策与财政政策协调机制的均衡分析 ——基于非线性结构模型系统

为探究货币财政政策在既定宏观经济目标下政策协调的最优均衡策略,本文引入内生的政府支出政策,并基于非线性利率及财政赤字率作用的货币供应量方程构建非线性结构模型.进一步地,对包含内生政策的非线性结构模型进行对数线性化处理与参数校准,并基于既定预期目标研究货币政策与财政政策的协调问题.特别地,对2008年和2017年进行了政策均衡模拟分析.通过模拟分析可以发现,当经济出现较大波动时,采用本文模型可以得到满足均衡情况的实际利率和财政赤字率的最优政策组合,与我国当前实际经济采取的政策组合较为一致.     

Stories,Fables, Parables,and Myths: Greece and the Euro Crisis,Toward a New Narrative

The debt crisis in the Eurozone has generated an intense academic debate about the appropriate policy response to the crisis. At the same time, the general public hears a variety of stories about the crisis, and especially stories about the debt crisis in Greece. This paper deals with the economic significance of stories, in particular with the importance of the Greek "morality tale." Stories are powerful in influencing public psychology, and they can affect the economy through fluctuations in confidence and "animal spirits." The paper considers the development of the Greek story through a web of related stories, fables, parables, and myths. It argues that the story dramatically distorts the reality of the debt crisis in the Eurozone and poses a threat to the global economy through its adverse effects on confidence and "animal spirits." It concludes that Europe needs not only a new policy direction, but also a new narrative about the debt crisis.     

Fiscal adjustment and the costs of public debt service: evidence from OECD countries

We use a panel of 21 OECD countries from 1970 to 2009 to investigate the effects of different fiscal adjustment strategies on long-term interest rates – a key fiscal indicator reflecting the costs of government debt service. As Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has shown, governments confronted with high deficits and rising debt may be forced to enact fiscal adjustments in order to avoid increasing market pressure and solvency problems. Over the last four decades, such measures taken by governments in OECD countries have varied in duration, size, composition and in their success to re-establish fiscal sustainability. We find that large and expenditure-based adjustments lead to substantially lower long-term interest rates. Small and revenue-based measures do not have an effect on interest rates. Financial markets thus only seem to value strict and decisive measures – a clear sign that the government’s pledge to cut the deficit is credible.     

The dynamic relationship between the prices of ADRs and their underlying stocks: Evidence from the threshold vector error correction model

This paper sets out to estimate the dynamic relationship that exists between the prices of ADRs and their underlying stocks, in both the short run and the long run, using a number of recent developments of the threshold cointegration framework. The empirical results support the notion of nonlinear mean reversion of the prices of ADRs and their underlying stocks.     

政府支出结构与税收分配比例的经济增长效应研究——财政分权体制下政府最大化社会福利机制推演

文章建立了一个结合两级政府、三种支出类型的内生增长模型,研究发现除了消费性支出对经济增长有负作用外,其他类型的政府支出以及财政分权(由政府间税收收入分配比例反映)对经济增长率影响的正负作用取决于支出的初始值和支出的相对生产率诸因素.最优的收入分配比例(指政府的净收入)应该与该级政府的生产性支出的相对生产率相对称,转移支付在其中所起的作用在于调整初始税收收入分配的不均带来的对这个标准的扭曲.每级政府消费性支出的比例越小越好,以维持政府能正常运转即可,而每级政府的生产性支出的比例应该与该种支出的相对生产率相对称.     

财政分权、政府层级与企业过度投资——来自地区上市公司面板数据的经验证据

文章以我国2001-2007年的上市公司为研究样本,探讨了地区财政分权程度与国有公司所属的政府层级对企业过度投资行为的影响。研究发现,财政分权越不充分的地区,其所控制的国有公司和属地民营公司越有可能存在过度投资行为;相对于中央政府控制的国有公司,地方政府控制的国有公司和属地民营公司更有可能存在过度投资行为;地方政府的层级越低,其所控制的国有公司越有可能存在过度投资行为;GDP增速越慢的地区,其所控制的国有公司和属地民营公司越有可能存在过度投资行为。     

论分税制下财政转移支付与地方财政努力差异——基于功能与地区多重分类考察的另类荷兰病分析

文章主要研究分税制下政府间转移支付与地区财政努力差异的关系.通过理论模型推导和对转移支付的实证检验发现:中国现行转移支付制度在总体上抑制了地方政府的财政努力.就区域效果而言,转移支付在促进东部发达省份财政努力的同时,抑制了中、西部落后地区的财政努力;就转移支付的功能类型而言,以税收返还为主的条件性转移支付会激励地方政府努力征税,而非条件性转移支付,包括财力性和专项转移支付将不同程度地抑制地方财政努力.这就产生了挤出效应与另类"荷兰病"的问题.     

Fiscal sustainability and dollarization: the case of Ecuador

This article tries to disentangle the dynamic relationships between fiscal variables and economic activity in a small emerging economy characterized by full dollarization, namely, Ecuador. We find that fiscal policy in Ecuador seems to be sustainable, explained by its policy of debt payment through oil revenues, rather than by a fiscal discipline that dollarization is supposed to encourage. The non-oil tax revenues variable is a purely adjusting variable. This result suggests that in a dollarized country that cannot benefit from the ‘seignorage’ revenues, the reliance on volatile oil revenues and on smoothing tax revenues leaves the economy’s fiscal sustainability vulnerable.     

Fiscal space on the eurozone periphery and the use of the (partially) balanced-budget multiplier: The case of Spain

This article adopts the “functional finance” approach to consider the utilization of expansive fiscal policies in the members of the European Monetary Union most affected by high unemployment. As they do not have their own monetary policy, fiscal deficits require the issuing of public debt without the support of the central bank. The authors consequently incorporate the notion of a (partially) balanced-budget expansion to achieve the desired stimulus in gross domestic product (GDP) with the least possible effect on public debt. Their proposal is only a sort of “imperfect” balanced-budget expansion: It is based on the idea that simultaneous increases in public revenue and expenditure can boost GDP, but without any pretension of keeping public deficit unchanged. Specifically, the authors use the case of Spain to show that a more expansive fiscal policy is desirable on economic grounds, and that only institutional constraints prevent it. They do it presenting two alternative scenarios for the coming years and analyzing their different impact on unemployment and fiscal sustainability. The first represents a firm commitment to budget consolidation, whereas the second is based on this “imperfect” application of the balanced budget multiplier. The main conclusion is that a more expansive fiscal policy is perfectly compatible with finance sustainability.     

Politics and the stock market: Evidence from Germany

We analyze the interaction of stock market movements and politics in Germany. Evidence from popularity functions and VAR-based evidence suggests that stock market returns have affected the popularity of German governments. We only find weak evidence that the political process has had an impact on the stock market. In contrast to empirical evidence for the U.S., we do not find that German stock market returns tend to be higher during left-wing than during right-wing governments. Also in contrast to results for the U.S., we find no evidence for an election cycle in German stock market returns.