Was This Time Different? Fiscal Policy in Commodity Republics / Luis Felipe Céspedes, Andrés Velasco.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Céspedes, Luis Felipe.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Velasco, Andrés.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w19748.

NBER working paper series no. w19748

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2013.

Summary:

We revisit the issue of fiscal procyclicality in commodity-rich nations -commodity republics in the nomenclature of this paper. Since commodity prices are plausibly a main driver of fiscal policy outcomes in these countries, we focus on the behavior of fiscal variables across the commodity cycle, in contrast to behavior across the output cycle, which has been the main focus of earlier research on fiscal procyclicality. We present evidence of reduced fiscal policy procyclicality in a number of countries. Our empirical results suggest that improvements in institutional quality have led to a more countercyclical fiscal policy stance in a number of countries. The presence of fiscal rules also seems to have made a difference: countries that use them displayed a larger shift toward fiscal counter-cyclicality between the two episodes.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2013.