Download or read book The Political Economy of Budget Deficits written by Mr.Alberto Alesina and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1994-08-01 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper provides a critical survey of the literature on politico-institutional determinants of the government budget. We organize our discussion around two questions: Why did certain OECD countries, but not others, accumulate large public debts? Why did these fiscal imbalances appear in the last 20 years rather than before? We begin by discussing the “tax smoothing” model and conclude that this approach alone cannot provide complete answers to these questions. We will then proceed to a discussion of political economy models, which we organize in six groups: (i) models based upon opportunistic policymakers and naive voters with “fiscal illusion;” (ii) models of intergenerational redistributions; (iii) models of debt as a strategic variable, linking the current government with the next one; (iv) models of coalition governments; (v) models of geographically dispersed interests; and (vi) models emphasizing the effects of budgetary institutions. We conclude by briefly discussing policy implications.

Download or read book The Political Economy of Budget Deficits written by Alberto Alesina and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper provides a critical survey of the literature on politico-institutional determinants of the government budget. We organize our discussion around two questions: Why did certain OECD countries, but not others, accumulate large public debts? Why did these fiscal imbalances appear in the last twenty years rather than before? We begin by discussing the 'tax smoothing' model and conclude that this approach alone cannot provide complete answers to these questions. We will then proceed to a discussion of political economy models, which we organize in six groups: i) Models based upon opportunistic policy makers and naive voters with 'fiscal illusion'; ii) Models of intergenerational redistributions; iii) Models of debt as a strategic variable, linking the current government with the next one; iv) Models of coalition governments; v) Models of geographically dispersed interests; vi) Models emphasizing the effects of budgetary institutions.

Download or read book The Political Economy of Budget Deficits written by Alberto F. Alesina and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper provides a critical survey of the literature on politico-institutional determinants of the government budget. We organize our discussion around two questions: Why did certain OECD countries, but not others, accumulate large public debts? Why did these fiscal imbalances appear in the last 20 years rather than before? We begin by discussing the quot;tax smoothingquot; model and conclude that this approach alone cannot provide complete answers to these questions. We will then proceed to a discussion of political economy models, which we organize in six groups: (i) models based upon opportunistic policymakers and naive voters with quot;fiscal illusion;quot; (ii) models of intergenerational redistributions; (iii) models of debt as a strategic variable, linking the current government with the next one; (iv) models of coalition governments; (v) models of geographically dispersed interests; and (vi) models emphasizing the effects of budgetary institutions.We conclude by briefly discussing policy implications.

Download or read book Deficits Debt and Democracy written by Richard E. Wagner and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely book reveals that the budget deficits and accumulating debts that plague modern democracies reflect a clash between two rationalities of governance: one of private property and one of common property. The clashing of these rationalities at various places in society creates forms of societal tectonics that play out through budgeting. The book demonstrates that while this clash is an inherent feature of democratic political economy, it can nonetheless be limited through embracing once again a constitution of liberty. Not all commons settings have tragic outcomes, of course, but tragic outcomes loom large in democratic processes because they entail conflict between two very different forms of substantive rationality; the political and market rationalities. These are both orders that contain interactions among participants, but the institutional frameworks that govern those interactions differ, generating democratic budgetary tragedies. Those tragedies, moreover, are inherent in the conflict between the different rationalities and so cannot be eliminated. They can, as this book argues, be reduced by restoring a constitution of liberty in place of the constitution of control that has taken shape throughout the west over the past century. Economists interested in public finance, public policy and political economy along with scholars of political science, public administration, law and political philosophy will find this book intriguing.

Download or read book Budget Deficits and Debt written by Siamack Shojai and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1999-01-30 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection is a critical evaluation of the impact of fiscal imbalances on the economy of industrialized and developing countries as prepared by a diverse group of scholars involved in advanced research on public finance. Technical issues, economic consequences and the political economy of budget deficits and government debt are covered in one succinct volume. The work provides a balanced presentation of neo-classical views on measures of government deficits; the budget process and major budgetary legislation in the United States; and the impact of deficits on economic activity, exchange rates, inflation, financial markets, trade balance, and economic growth. It also examines the political economy of government budgets in the OECD, select developing economies, and South Africa. From the 1950s to the 1980s, economic activity and growth were affected by fiscal imbalances and excessive government activity in many countries. Although many actors have made retrenchment attempts, economic research has not resolved the conflicting arguments about the impact of fiscal imbalances on the global economy. This book provides a balanced presentation of all major issues related to the impact of fiscal activity on the economy.

Download or read book The Political Economy of Public Debt written by Richard M. Salsman and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2017-02-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How have the most influential political economists of the past three centuries theorized about sovereign borrowing and shaped its now widespread use? That important question receives a comprehensive answer in this original work, featuring careful textual analysis and illuminating exhibits of public debt empirics since 1700. Beyond its value as a definitive, authoritative history of thought on public debt, this book rehabilitates and reintroduces a realist perspective into a contemporary debate now heavily dominated by pessimists and optimists alike.

Download or read book The Political Economy of Fiscal Policy written by Jaejoon Woo and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-02-25 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most striking macroeconomic developments during the last three decades is the rise and persistence of large fiscal deficits in a number of countries. Despite recent major fiscal reforms around the world, many countries suffer from recurrent large fiscal imbalances that often reflect lack of fiscal discipline. Why do some countries have recurrent fiscal deficit or volatility problems, while others do not? What factors are most important in explaining cross-country variation in fiscal outcomes? How are they related to growth or inflation? This book presents new, rigorous, theoretical and empirical studies on these fiscal issues, and highlights social polarization as an essential organizing principle in a political economy approach. Also, it discusses how institutional constraints may favourably affect fiscal dynamics in the presence of social polarization.

Download or read book Institutions Politics and Fiscal Policy written by Rolf R. Strauch and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rolf R. Strauch and Jiirgen von Hagen Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI), University of Bonn; ZEI, University of Bonn, Indiana University, and CEPR The large and persistent deficits, rising levels of debt and growing levels of public spending observed in many DECO economies during the past 25 years have stimulated much theoretical and empirical research on the political economy of public finance. Although a number of issues have been studied extensively, certain areas are still at an exploratory stage and need further theorizing and thorough empirical research. During the last two decades, the theoretical debate on budgeting has been dominated by the controversy between partisan and institutionalist approaches. Within the more political-science oriented, institutionalist literature, a controversy exists between the distributive and the informational perspectives, each setting forth a distinctive organizational rationale of parliaments with different fiscal implications. The papers in this volume cover these different perspectives, extend previous models, and test their empirical validity. The papers were originally written for a conference on "Institutions, Politics, and Fiscal Policy" organized by the Center for European Integration Studies at the University of Bonn, Germany, in July 1998. The book is organized in three parts each focusing on a distinctive aspect. The first part is dedicated to the partisan perspective. The second part focuses on budget institutions. The third part consists of three case studies of institutional reform of the budget process. This book is directed to academics and practitioners alike.

Download or read book Do Deficits Matter written by Daniel Shaviro and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1997-05 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do deficits matter? Yes and no, says Daniel Shaviro in this political and economic study. Yes, because fiscal policy affects generational distribution, national saving, and the level of government spending. And no, because the deficit is an inaccurate measure with little economic content. This book provides an invaluable guide for anyone wanting to know exactly what is at stake for Americans in this ongoing debate. "[An] excellent, comprehensive, and illuminating book. Its analysis, deftly integrating considerations of economics, law, politics, and philosophy, brings the issues of 'balanced budgets,' national saving, and intergenerational equity out of the area of religious crusades and into an arena of reason. . . . A magnificent, judicious, and balanced treatment. It should be read and studied not just by specialists in fiscal policy but by all those in the economic and political community."—Robert Eisner, Journal of Economic Literature "Shaviro's history, economics, and political analysis are right on the mark. For all readers."—Library Journal

Download or read book Budget Deficits and Economic Performance Routledge Revivals written by Richard Burdekin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-06-11 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the time in which this book was first published in 1992, there was a major concern with the macro-economic implications of fiscal imbalance. As the European economies moved closer to monetary union, and Germany grappled with the fiscal pressures of unification, deficits in the United States exceeded $300 billion. In this volume the authors address this issue, using both historical case-studies and cross-national comparisons. This book will be of interest to students of economics.

Download or read book The Deficit Myth written by Stephanie Kelton and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Bestseller The leading thinker and most visible public advocate of modern monetary theory -- the freshest and most important idea about economics in decades -- delivers a radically different, bold, new understanding for how to build a just and prosperous society. Stephanie Kelton's brilliant exploration of modern monetary theory (MMT) dramatically changes our understanding of how we can best deal with crucial issues ranging from poverty and inequality to creating jobs, expanding health care coverage, climate change, and building resilient infrastructure. Any ambitious proposal, however, inevitably runs into the buzz saw of how to find the money to pay for it, rooted in myths about deficits that are hobbling us as a country. Kelton busts through the myths that prevent us from taking action: that the federal government should budget like a household, that deficits will harm the next generation, crowd out private investment, and undermine long-term growth, and that entitlements are propelling us toward a grave fiscal crisis. MMT, as Kelton shows, shifts the terrain from narrow budgetary questions to one of broader economic and social benefits. With its important new ways of understanding money, taxes, and the critical role of deficit spending, MMT redefines how to responsibly use our resources so that we can maximize our potential as a society. MMT gives us the power to imagine a new politics and a new economy and move from a narrative of scarcity to one of opportunity.

Download or read book Politics and Economics in the Eighties written by Alberto Alesina and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is the federal budget deficit a result of congressional deadlocks, gross miscalculation of economic trends, or a Republican strategy to tie the budgetary hands of future Democratic leadership? To what extend does the partisan split between Congress and the executive branch constrain the president's agenda? In this volume, political scientists and economists tackle these and many other contentious issues, offering a variety of analytical perspectives. Certain to provoke controversy, this interdisciplinary volume brings together policy experts to provide a coherent analysis of the most important economic policy changes of the 1980s. Through a detailed examination of voting patterns, monetary and fiscal policies, welfare spending, tax reform, minimum wage legislation, the savings and loan collapse, and international trade policy, the authors explore how politics can influence the direction of economic policymaking.

Download or read book The Economics of Public Spending written by Hassan Bougrine and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text argues that in many jurisdictions free market advocates have resorted to pubic sector downsizing and privatization as a means of alleviating problems of unemployment and slow economic growth, and that, as a consequence, the strategy of reducing public deficits, balancing budgets and achieving surpluses has become widely accepted as the only road to prosperity.

Download or read book The Economic Consequences of Government Deficits written by L.H. Meyer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On October 29 and 30, 1982, the Center for the Study of American Business and the Institute for Banking and Financial Markets at Washington "The Economic Consequences of University cosponsored a conference on Government Deficits. " This was the sixth annual Economic Policy Con ference sponsored by the Center, and the first it has cosponsored with the Institute. This book contains the papers and comments delivered at that conference. Recent and prospective large federal deficits have prompted a thorough reconsideration of the political sources and economic consequences of government deficits. The papers in Part I focus on the implications of deficits for monetary growth and inflation, and the papers in Part II consider the effect of deficits on interest rates and capital formation. The papers in Part III deal with the political sources and remedies for the explosive growth in government spending and increased reliance on deficits. The papers in Part I by Alan S. Blinder, Professor of Economics at Princeton University, and Preston J. Miller, Assistant Vice President and Research Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, discuss the relation between monetary growth and deficits and present evidence on the of deficits on inflation and output. A deficit is said to be monetized effects vii viii THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF GOVERNMENT DEFICITS when the Federal Reserve purchases bonds to aid the Treasury in financing the deficit.

Download or read book Economic Effects of the Government Budget written by Elhanan Helpman and published by MIT Press (MA). This book was released on 1988 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The original contributions in this book analyze all of the budget's components expenditures, revenues, the deficit - with a special emphasis on issues that have assumed increasing importance over the last decade or so, such as intergenerational transfers of debt and declines in corporate tax revenues.

Download or read book The Political Economy of Fiscal Policy written by Miguel Urrutia and published by United Nations University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book represents an attempt to test the applicability of this hypothesis, through a comparative study of the fiscal policy and decision-making process of six countries that, taken together, represent a broad range of political and bureaucratic systems.

Download or read book The Political Economy of the Public Budget in the Americas written by Diego Sánchez-Ancochea and published by University of London Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a multidisciplinary comparison of fiscal and tax policies in Latin America and the United States by political economy specialists from Latin America, the U.S., and Europe. The contributors identify the common budgetary problems of the nations of the Americas in terms of their status as small fiscal states--ones that have failed to generate adequate tax resources to fund the responsibilities of modern government. They also consider the differing effect of capital inflows on the autonomy of the public sector in the U.S. and Latin America. While the former has been able to operate large budgetary and trade deficits without adverse reaction from global financial markets, the latter has experienced the disciplining effect of these external forces to maintain low public deficits. The book offers a timely assessment of hemispheric fiscal developments on the eve of the greatest crisis for the world economy since the depression of the 1930s. Contributors includeWerner Baer (University of Illinois), Dennis S. Ippolito (Southern Methodist University), Colin M. Lewis (London School of Economics & Political Science and ISA), Roberto Machado (ECLAC), Andrew H. Mitchell (UCLA Center for Economic History), Iwan Morgan (ISA), Diego Sánchez-Ancochea (University of Oxford), Aaron Schneider (Tulane University), Carlos E. Schonerwald (Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos and ECLAC), and Matías Vernengo (University of Utah).