About the Book
This compelling research review touches on the contemporary debates in macroeconomics that have consequentially emerged as a result of government debt. Should governments tolerate high public debt or become more indebted given the now prevailing low interest rates? Or is high public debt bad for private sector confidence and growth, by feeding uncertainty, expectation of future tax hikes and an imminent collapse in the wake of the next crisis? This review presents a collection of articles reflecting on these complex and intriguing topics. This review will be useful for policy makers and academics alike, while being particularly suited for those wishing to explore this exciting research area further.
Table of Contents:
Contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction Cristina Checherita-Westphal
PART I THEORETICAL LITERATURE ON THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF PUBLIC DEBT
A. Older Literature
1. James E. Meade (1958), ‘Is the National Debt a Burden?’, Oxford Economic Papers, 10 (2), June, 163–83
2. Franco Modigliani (1961), ‘Long-Run Implications of Alternative Fiscal Policies and the Burden of the National Debt’, Economic Journal, 71 (284), December, 730–55
3. Peter A. Diamond (1965), ‘National Debt in a Neoclassical Growth Model’, American Economic Review, 55 (5), December, 1126–50
B. More Recent Literature
4. Olivier J. Blanchard (1985), ‘Debt, Deficits and Finite Horizons,’ Journal of Political Economy, 93 (2), April, 223–47
5. Gilles Saint-Paul (1992), ‘Fiscal Policy in an Endogenous Growth Model’, Quartely Journal of Economics, 107 (4), November, 1243–59
6. Cristina Checherita-Westphal, Andrew Hughes Hallet and Philipp Rother (2014), ‘Fiscal Sustainability using Growth-Maximising Debt Targets’, Applied Economics, 46 (6), February, 638–47
PART II EMPIRICAL LITERATURE ON THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF PUBLIC DEBT AND ITS CHANNELS
A. Debt and Growth
7. Carmen M. Reinhart, Vincent R. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff (2012), ‘Public Debt Overhangs: Advanced-Economy Episodes Since 1800’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26 (3), August, 69–86
8. Cristina Checherita-Westphal and Philipp Rother (2012), ‘The Impact of High Government Debt on Economic Growth and its Channels: An Empirical Investigation for the Euro Area’, European Economic Review, 56 (7), October, 1392–405
9. Anja Baum, Cristina Checherita-Westphal and Philipp Rother (2013), ‘Debt and Growth: New Evidence for the Euro Area ’, Journal of International Money and Finance, 32, February, 809–21
10. Jaejoon Woo and Manmohan S. Kumar (2015), ‘Public Debt and Growth’, Economica, 82 (328), October, 705–39
11. Ugo Panizza and Andrea F. Presbitero (2013), ‘Public Debt and Economic Growth in Advanced Economies: A Survey’, Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, 149 (2), January, 175–204
B. Interest Rates and Sovereign Bond Spreads
12. Alberto F. Alesina, Mark De Broeck, Alessandro Prati and Guido Tabellini (1992), ‘Default Risk on Government Debt in OECD Countries’, Economic Policy, 7 (15), October, 428–63
13. Lorenzo Codogno, Carlo Favero and Alessandro Missale (2003), ‘Yield Spreads on EMU Government Bonds’, Economic Policy, 18 (37), October, 503–32
14. Thomas Laubach (2009), ‘New Evidence on the Interest Rate Effects of Budget Deficits and Debt’, Journal of the European Economic Association, 7 (4), June, 858–85
15. Maria-Grazia Attinasi, Cristina Checherita-Westphal and Christiane Nickel (2010), ‘What Explains the Surge in Euro Area Sovereign Spreads During the Financial Crisis of 2007–09?’, Public Finance and Management, 10 (4), 595–645
C. Public Investment
16. Nigel Chalk and Vito Tanzi (2002), ‘Impact of Large Public Debt on Growth in the EU: A Discussion of Potential Channels’, in Marco Buti, Jürgen Von Hagen and Carlos Martinez-Mongay (eds), The Behaviour of Fiscal Authorities: Stabilisation, Growth and Institutions, Part II, Chapter 11, London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 186–211
D. Financial Intermediation
17. Riccardo De Bonis and Massimiliano Stacchini (2013), ‘Does Government Debt Affect Bank Credit?’, International Finance, 16, December, 289–310
18. Óscar Jordà, Moritz Schularick and Alan M. Taylor (2016), ‘Sovereigns versus Banks: Credit, Crises, and Consequences’, Journal of the European Economic Association, 14 (1), February, 45–79
E. Debt Crisis and Default
19. Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff (2009), ‘A Digression on the Theoretical Underpinnings of Debt Crisis’, in This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly’, Part II, Chapter 4, Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press, 51–67
20. Ugo Panizza , Federico Sturzenegger and Jeromin Zettlelmeyer (2009), ‘The Economics and Law of Sovereign Debt and Default’, Journal of Economic Literature, 47 (3), September, 651–98
PART III DEBT REDUCTION STRATEGIES: ISSUES AND EFFECTS
21. S.M. Ali Abbas, Nazim Belhocine, Asmaa ElGanainy and Mark Horton (2013), ‘Historical Patterns and Dynamics of Public Debt – Evidence from a New Database’, IMF Economic Review, 59 (4), November, 717–42
22. Alberto F. Alesina and Silvia Ardagna (2013), ‘The Design of Fiscal Adjustments’, in, Jeffrey R. Brown (ed.), Policy and the Economy, Chapter 2, Chicago, IL, USA: University of Chicago Press, 27, September, 19–68
23. Thomas Warmedinger, Cristina Checherita-Westphal and Pablo Hernández De Cos (2015), ‘Fiscal Multipliers and Beyond’, Hacienda Pública Española/Review of Public Economics, 215 (4), January, 139–68
24. Alberto F. Alesina and Andrea Passalacqua (2015), ‘The Political Economy of Government Debt’, NBER Working Papers No. 21821, Cambridge, MA, USA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1–74
Index
About the Author :
Edited by Cristina D. Checherita-Westphal, Principle Economist, Fiscal Policies Division, Directorate General Economics, European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
