Fiscal Expansions and Fiscal Adjustments in OECD Countries / Alberto Alesina, Roberto Perotti.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alesina, Alberto.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Perotti, Roberto.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w5214.

NBER working paper series no. w5214

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Banks and banking.

Budget.

Monetary policy.

Expenditures, Public.

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1995.

Cambridge, Massachusetts : National Bureau of Economic Research, 1995.

Summary:

This paper considers budget expansions and adjustments in OECD countries in the last three decades. Our main results are: i) on average fiscal expansions are the results of increases in expenditures, particularly of transfer programs, while contractions are typically due to tax increases; ii) however successful (i.e. long lasting), a minority of the total rely primarily on reduction of government wages and employment and cuts in transfer programs; iii) even major successful fiscal adjustments do not seem to have recessionary consequences, on average; iv) different types of governments show different degrees of success at implementing successful fiscal adjustment, with coalition governments showing the worst performance.

Notes:

Print version record

August 1995.