Deep Roots of Fiscal Behavior
Journal Title: Journal of Banking and Financial Economics - Year 2014, Vol 2, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper investigates the determinants of fiscal policy behavior and its time-varying volatility, using panel data for a broad set of advanced and emerging market economies during the period 1990–2012. The empirical results show that discretionary fiscal policy is influenced by policy inertia, the level of public debt, and the output gap in both advanced and emerging-market economies. In addition, the paper finds that macro-financial factors (such as real exchange rate, financial development, interest rates, asset prices, and natural resource rents) and demographic and institutional factors (such as the old-age dependency ratio, the quality of institutions, and policy anchors such as fiscal rules and IMF-supported stabilization programs) tend to have a significant effect on fiscal policy behavior. The results also indicate that higher government debt leads to more volatile fiscal behavior, while fiscal rules and higher institutional quality reduce the volatility of fiscal policy over time.
Authors and Affiliations
Serhan Cevik, Katerina Teksoz
A global perspective on inflation and propagation channels
This paper revisits the evidence on monetary policy transmission. It extends the existing literature in three dimensions. First, we attempt to internalise potential international channels of transmission by taking a glob...
Macroprudential Banking Regulation: Does One Size Fit All?
The macroprudential regulatory framework of Basel III imposes the same minimum capital and liquidity requirements on all banks around the world to ensure global competitiveness of banks. Using an agent-based model of the...
Macroeconomic Stability in Resource-rich Countries: The Role of Fiscal Policy
Resource-rich countries face large and persistent shocks, especially coming from volatile commodity prices. Given the severity of the shocks, it would be expected that these countries adopt countercyclical fiscal policie...
Unstash the Cash! Corporate Governance Reform in Japan
Japan’s high corporate savings might be holding back growth, by preventing a more effi cient use of resources. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been the main contributors to high corporate cash balances, but more...
Foreign Investor Flows and Sovereign Bond Yields in Advanced Economies
Asset allocation decisions of international investors are at the core of capital fl ows. This paper explores the impact of these decisions on long-term government bond yields, using a quarterly investor base dataset for...