Saving–investment correlations, capital mobility and crowding out: some further results

This study attempts to reassess the evidence on the degree of capital mobility and crowding out by applying a varying coefficients model to data on 19 OECD countries over the 1971–1999 period. Our period-specific results strongly support the crowding-out effect as well as the low capital mobility argument for this group of countries as a whole. However, the strength of the crowding-out effect appears to weaken and the degree of capital mobility to increase in the 1990s as compared to the 1970s and 1980s. We also classify countries into five groups according to the relative size of the government sector. Our group-specific results indicate that the degree of capital mobility is generally lower and the crowding-out effect generally stronger, in country groups with smaller governments. The differences are especially evident when we compare the group with largest government size with all other groups, those differences between the latter being much more modest. However, significant differences in the country-specific results suggest that it is prudent to be cautious when we draw conclusions about crowding-out and capital mobility for specific countries from the period-wise or group-wise results. This is particularly important in drawing policy implications for specific countries.