The fiscal outlook in Austria: an evaluation with Generational Accounts

During the next few decades the populations of most developed countries will grow older and older as a result of the low fertility rates since the 1970s and/or the continuously increasing life expectancy. Generational Accounting which was introduced in the early 1990s, can illustrate the effects of this ageing process on a country’s fiscal situation and on the intergenerational redistribution. Austria’s age dependency ratio will more than double over the next four decades in most official projections. In our paper we quantify for Austria how unsustainable its public finances are due to the demographic development. We show that despite recent reforms of the pension and health systems the demographic development produces a major problem for Austria’s coffers. Furthermore we compare our results to similar calculations for Germany and Switzerland.     

国债的性质与国债发行的转变

与现代资本市场发展的内在要求相比,中国的国债发行是很不规范的.本文从准确认识国债的性质出发,对我国今后的国债发行必须实现的三个转变进行了深入系统的分析,提出转变国债发行对象、转变国债发行品种、财政部门自设国债发行机构的观点.     

债务期限结构、流动性与公共债务管理

本文研究中国公共债务期限结构管理如何实现中央和地方两级政府债务融资效率性与稳定性的统一。我们的理论模型证明,当前地方政府融资平台和一些具有准政府性质的国有经济部门的短期债务融资在未来发生流动性冲击时会导致资产降价销售和负的社会外部性。基于资产组合理论和比较优势原理,我们提出中央和地方债务融资的利率互换方式以及债务期限结构优化管理的基本原则,并且对地方政府不同融资模式的经济效应和治理效应进行了简要的比较分析。     

Capital Controls,Public Debt and Currency Crises

This paper examines the possibility that, contrary to conventional wisdom, capital controls accelerate currency crises. Theoretical analysis shows that capital controls can constitute an additional burden on government budget and so bring forward the onset of crises. Since perfect capital mobility does not occur, domestic interest rates may deviate from world interest rates. High interest rates under capital controls create an additional cost of servicing outstanding domestic public debt, precipitating crises. Even though the government can delay crises with capital controls, welfare may be less than in a situation with perfect capital mobility.     

公共债务对实体经济的传导机制及政策启示

在我国经济发展的“新常态”下,公共债务将如何作用于实体经济的问题值得关注与思考。文章简要描述了国内外公共债务的实践历程及现状,并在对早期西方公共债务理论以及近期相关文献梳理的基础上,关于公共债务对实体经济的传导机制进行系统性分析。研究表明,公共债务分别通过三个层面实现对实体经济的传导：基于宏观层面,通过影响生产要素投入,实现公共债务对实体经济产出的传导;基于微观层面,通过刺激消费与投资,实现公共债务对实体经济总需求的传导;基于金融层面,通过调整流动性和利率,实现公共债务对实体经济运行的传导。因此,应当合理调控公共债务规模,提高公共债务的投资效率,有效地发挥公共债务对实体经济长期发展的推动作用。     

Public Debt, Migration, and Shortsighted Politicians

We analyze a model where local public debt levels are set by politicians who are chosen in local elections. Migration causes an externality across districts, and leads to overaccumulation of local public debt. Since debt is a strategic substitute, the median voters in each district prefer shortsighted political leaders who “borrow and spend,” thereby exacerbating the problem of overaccumulation of local public debt.     

The Sustainability of Italian Public Debt and Deficit

In this paper, we analyse the sustainability of Italian public debt using a unique database, reconstructed by Forte (2011), which covers the years 1862–2013. The study focuses on empirical tests for the sustainability and solvency of Italian public finance. The results of unit root and stationarity tests show that public debt and deficit variables are non-stationary at levels, but stationary in first-differences form, or I(1). However, some breaks in the series emerge, given internal and external crises (wars, oil shocks, regime changes, institutional reforms). Therefore, the empirical analysis is conducted for the entire period, as well as two sub-periods (1862–1913 and 1947–2013). In essence, the paper’s results reveal that Italy has sustainability problems in the Republican age (1947-2013). Our Markov-switching dynamic regression model indicates the existence of two distinct states, both for public debt and deficit, with means and standard deviations rather different. Both states are extremely persistent.     

基于可流动性资产负债表的我国政府债务风险研究

政府资产是政府债务顺利偿还的基础,当政府资产低于其负债时,政府债务将面临一定风险,因此基于政府资产负债的视角,本文结合中国实际首先编制了一个简化的政府"可流动性资产"负债表,然后,分析了1998—2008年我国政府仅考虑直接债务时的政府债务风险,并且对2009—2010年的政府债务风险进行了分析。研究表明,2003—2006年因外汇储备急剧增长使我国政府债务风险总体较小且比较稳定,但因金融危机的爆发,我国政府债务风险在此期间前后的两次金融危机中都比较大,金融危机对政府债务风险的影响显著。研究还表明,积极的财政政策对短期降低政府债务风险具有明显效果,且1997年亚洲金融危机和2007年美国次贷危机对我国政府债务风险的影响具有相似性,即金融危机爆发后的几年内政府债务风险会因积极的财政政策而经历"大—小—大"的变化过程。最后,通过引入政府或有债务,分析了具有或有债务时的政府债务风险。本文认为,只要我国政府的或有债务规模不超过24万亿元人民币,则我国的政府债务风险较小。     

我国国债利率效应及其实证分析

国债的利率效应是衡量政府政策效果的重要指标.本文运用OLS方法和Granger-Causality检验,对我国中长期国债的利率效应进行了研究.结果表明:我国中长期国债对市场利率具有微妙的正面效应,长期国债利率效应相对显著;我国国债对市场利率的托宾效应并不显著,政府投资可能对私人投资产生挤出效应.研究政府债务与市场利率之间的关系,对于政府行为与市场机制关系的理论研究以及避免政策失效具有重要意义.     

Principles for a European Union''s Public Debt

The EU has neither the power to tax nor the right to run a public debt. We analyze if the EU should receive the right for public indebtedness. We make use of the normative theory of public indebtedness and of positive political economy analysis. Our normative analysis identified specific cases for an appropriate use of public indebtedness. According to the political economy analysis, a misuse of public debt may be possible. As the implementation of strict constitutional constraints can limit this misuse, we propose the assignment of a right to public borrowing to the EU within tight constitutional restrictions.     

Heterogeneous Dynasties and the Political Economy of Public Debt

We consider a small open overlapping generations economy with descending altruism. Heterogeneity is introduced by assuming that each parent procreates a fixed proportion of selfish children. Altruistic parents can recognize the type of each child. There is no Ricardian equivalence and an active public intergenerational transfer policy is attractive to altruistic dynasty members, although there may be no unanimity among them. We display reasonable conditions for indirect preferences to be single-peaked and we apply the median voter theorem. We then describe political equilibrium paths and discuss their compatibility with the steady path of an underlying closed economy with autonomous labor productivity growth.
JEL classification : D 31; D 64; D 72; D 91; H 63     

国债规模的实证分析

本文从实证的角度出发,运用EViews软件分析了影响国债发行规模的多种因素,确定财政赤字与还本付息额是影响国债发行规模的最重要的因素,并对1979-2001年的国债规模进行了拟合.我们的结论是发行国债额几乎等于财政赤字与还本付息额之和,而这一债务格局难以实现长期稳定性.     

中国代际核算体系的建立和对养老保险制度改革的研究

代际核算方法是 2 0世纪 90年代出现的分析财政问题和代际平衡问题的新方法。本文建立了中国的第一套代际核算体系 ,并利用代际核算体系分析了中国的养老保险体系。考虑到中国的实际情况 ,本文对传统的代际核算体系进行了以下扩展 :首先 ,传统的代际核算体系将人口按照年龄和性别分类 ,而我国无论是税收体系还是养老保险体系 ,城乡差别都比较大 ,因此我们将人口按照年龄、性别和城乡三个维度分开 ;第二 ,由于我国的社会保障体系不是全民覆盖 ,因此我们在考虑社会保障体系的缴费和支付时 ,需要考虑覆盖面的变化。核算结果表明我国城乡不平衡很严重 ,城镇人口到 55岁 (其中女性到 50岁 )时代际帐户就为负值 ,而农村人口要到 85岁 (其中女性到 90岁 )代际帐户才为负值。我国的代际不平衡也较为严重 ,按照不同的生产率增长率和贴现率的假设 ,我国未来代的代际帐户值比 2 0 0 2年新出生一代高 66%到 1 0 2 %。而如果我们采用延长退休年龄的政策 ,代际不平衡情况可以得到很大改善 ,未来代的代际帐户值比 2 0 0 2年新生代高 43 %到 81 %。而如果不对机关事业单位的养老保险制度进行改革 ,代际不平衡状况将更加严重 ,未来代的代际帐户值比现存各代高出 78%到 1 1 5%。     

Public Debt Reduction in Advanced Countries and Its Impact on Emerging Countries

Financial crises accompanied by banking crises often entail heavy fiscal legacies. For the U.S., for example, the gross government debt to GDP ratio exceeded 100 % in 2012. Due to the unsustainability of public debt, both in the U.S. and in other advanced countries, moves towards a substantial reduction in debt levels would appear to be unavoidable. However, as shown in this paper, the long-run welfare impact of debt reduction in advanced countries, both at home and abroad, may prove to be somewhat of a disincentive for policy makers. In particular, we find that under conditions of dynamic inefficiency, and when Home (U.S.) has a negative external balance and a lower capital production share than Foreign (China), both domestic and foreign welfare decrease if Home reduces public debt.     

The Budget Deficit, Public Debt, and Endogenous Growth

This paper analyzes the effects of public debt on endogenous growth in an overlapping generations model. The government fixes the budget deficit ratio. If the deficit ratio stays below a critical level, then there are two steady states where capital, output, and public debt grow at the same constant rate. An increase in the deficit ratio reduces the growth rate. If the deficit ratio exceeds the critical level, then there is no steady state. Capital growth declines continuously, and capital is driven down to zero in finite time.     

Public finance and private saving in Austria: The effects of saving promotion

Zusammenfassung Angesichts der zunehmenden Bedeutung der österreichischen Sozialversicherung durch die schrittweise Ausweitung der sozialversicherten gesellschaftlichen Gruppen in den letzten Jahrzehnten scheint es a priori durchaus plausibel, daßFeldsteins erweitertes Lebenszyklusmodell die Entwicklung des privaten Sparens besser beschreibt als Modelle des traditionellen Lebenszyklus-Ansatzes. Daß der Erklärungsgehalt des Feldstein-Modells für die österreichische Volkswirtschaft beschränkt ist, könnte zum Teil mit dem Ausbau der Sparförderung zusammenhängen, die ihrerseits die Sparentscheidung der Haushalte maßgeblich beeinflußt hat. Eine verbesserte Basis für die ökonomische Erklärung des Sparverhaltens der Haushalte kann gewonnen werden, wenn die Nachfrage nach dauerhaften Konsumgütern explizit in ein Lebenszyklusmodel eingebaut wird. Die ökonometrische Evidenz zeigt, daß durch die öffentliche Sparförderung die Geldkapitalbildung in den geförderten Sparformen stark ausgeweitet wurde, sie bietet aber darüber hinaus Anhaltspunkte dafür, daß gleichzeitig die Nachfrage nach dauerhaften Konsumgütern belebt und insgesamt eine dämpfende Wirkung auf die Spartätigkeit der Haushalte ausgeübt wurde, im Widerspruch zur ursprünglichen Zielsetzung der Sparförderung.     

可持续公共债务水平下的政府违约问题研究

现实经济中存在公共债务具有可持续性时却发生政府违约的现象,本文在政府未来收支波动具有不确定性的假设下,建立一个政府与投资者的重复博弈模型以分析这一现象,研究发现:公共债务可持续性并不能完全排除政府违约风险,在政府未来基本盈余不确定的条件下,理性投资者愿意持有的公共债务水平远低于可持续的公共债务水平,两者的差异取决于政府对未来基本盈余的控制能力.     

关于金融呆账准备金提取与核销问题的探讨

呆帐是指金融机构在经营中形成的无法收回的债权。近几年来,一些金融机构效益下滑,其中一个关键因素是不良债权的凸现。为了解决这一难题,国家一方面允许金融机构适当增加呆帐准备金得取比例,通过金融机构核销部分国有大中型企业的违约贷款,帮助企业摆脱困境;另一方面,为了减轻金融机构的负担,国家又涉及国际上的成功经验,补充了部分金融机构的资本金,成立了金融资产管理公司帮助其剥离相当部分不良资产。     

Optimal Monetary Policy, Taxes, and Public Debt in an Intertemporal Equilibrium

This article is devoted to a study of the optimal monetary and fiscal policies within the framework of an overlapping generations model with cash-in-advance constraints. We first characterize the intertemporal equilibrium. Then we show how to decentralize the optimal growth path using available policy instruments (i.e., labor income and capital taxes, public debt, money supply). Between the four instruments: wages and capital taxes, debt and monetary policy, one is redundant among the three last which implies that the Friedman Rule is only a special case.