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1. Aggregate Effects of Budget Stimulus: Evidence from the Large Fiscal Expansions Database

Author:
Jérémie Cohen-Setton, Egor Gornostay, and Colombe Ladreit de Lacharrière
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
This paper estimates the effects of fiscal stimulus on economic activity using a novel database on large fiscal expansions for 17 OECD countries for the period 1960–2006. The database is constructed by combining the statistical approach to identifying large shifts in fiscal policy with narrative evidence from contemporaneous policy documents. When correctly identified, large fiscal stimulus packages are found to have strong and persistent expansionary effects on economic activity, with a multiplier of 1 or above. The effects of stimulus are largest in slumps and smallest in booms.
Topic:
Budget, Economy, Fiscal Policy, and Stimulus
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Fiscal Policy Options for Japan

Author:
Olivier Blanchard and Takashi Tashiro
Publication Date:
05-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
For many years, the Japanese government has promised an eventual return to primary budget surpluses, but it has not delivered on these promises. Its latest goal is to return to primary balance by 2025. Blanchard and Tashiro, however, argue that, in the current economic environment in Japan, primary deficits may be needed for a long time, because they may be the best tool to sustain demand and output, alleviate the burden on monetary policy, and increase future output. What primary deficits are used for, however, is equally important, and the Japanese government should put them to better use. The authors recommend that, given Japan’s aging population, the government should spend on measures aimed at increasing fertility—and by implication population and output growth—which are likely to more than pay for themselves.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Budget, Fiscal Policy, and Deficit
Political Geography:
Japan and Asia

3. Aggregate Effects of Budget Stimulus: Evidence from the Large Fiscal Expansions Database

Author:
Jeremie Cohen-Setton, Egor Gornostay, and Colombe Ladreit de Lacharrière
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
This paper estimates the effects of fiscal stimulus on economic activity using a novel database on large fiscal expansions for 17 OECD countries for the period 1960–2006. The database is constructed by combining the statistical approach to identifying large shifts in fiscal policy with narrative evidence from contemporaneous policy documents. When correctly identified, large fiscal stimulus packages are found to have strong and persistent expansionary effects on economic activity, with a multiplier of 1 or above. The effects of stimulus are largest in slumps and smallest in booms.
Topic:
Budget, Fiscal Policy, and Stimulus
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. The True Levels of Government and Social Expenditures in Advanced Economies

Author:
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
Conventional wisdom holds that the United States lags behind many other advanced countries in its spending on social, health, and welfare programs. In this Policy Brief, Jacob Kirkegaard argues that conventional wisdom is faulty, in that it overlooks the role of tax systems and private spending in delivering social programs in different societies. Taking the full effects of tax systems and spending by private and public sources into account, Kirkegaard finds that the true level of US social expenditures is fully comparable to European spending—and yet yields worse outcomes than in Europe. High aggregate social spending in the United States has a very low impact on overall income inequality and healthcare outcomes, for example. The Policy Brief also concludes that the United States relies excessively on tax subsidization to the detriment of fiscal sustainability, transparency, and redistributive fairness
Topic:
Governance, Health Care Policy, and Budget

5. How Not to Regulate Insurance Markets: The Risks and Dangers of Solvency II

Author:
Avinash D. Persaud
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
Solvency II, which the European Parliament adopted in March 2014, codifies and harmonizes insurance regulations in Europe to reduce the risk of an insurer defaulting on its obligations and producing dangerous systemic side effects. The new directive tries to achieve these aims primarily by setting capital requirements for the assets of insurers and pension funds based on the annual volatility of the price of these assets. Persaud argues that these capital requirements will impose an asset allocation on life insurers and pension funds that does not serve the interests of consumers, the financial system, or the economy. The main problem with Solvency II is that the riskiness of the assets of a life insurer or pension fund with liabilities that will not materialize before 10 or sometimes 20 years is not well measured by the amount by which prices may fall during the next year. Solvency II fails to take account of the fact that institutions with different liabilities have different capacities for absorbing different risks and that it is the exploitation of these differences that creates systemic resilience. To correct this problem, Persaud offers an alternative approach that is more attuned to the risk that a pension fund or life insurer would fail to meet its obligations when they come due and less focused on the short-term volatility of asset prices.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Budget

6. From Populist Destabilization to Reform and Possible Debt Relief in Greece

Author:
William R. Cline
Publication Date:
08-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
Using his European Debt Simulation Model (EDSM), Cline examines whether and to what extent additional debt relief is needed in Greece under the new circumstances. Greece's debt burden is significantly lower than implied by the ratio of its gross debt to GDP, because of concessional interest rates on debt owed predominantly to the euro area official sector. The IMF's call for debt relief recognizes the lower interest burden but argues that the gross financing requirement is on track to exceed a sustainable range of 15 to 20 percent. But in the Fund's June Debt Sustainability Analysis that threshold would not be exceeded until after 2030. A sustainability diagnosis based on such a distant future date would seem at best illustrative rather than definitive. The euro area creditors might, nonetheless, be well advised to provide two types of interest relief: an earmarked portion of interest otherwise due to finance a public works employment program; and additional interest relief to compensate for budget shortfalls caused by growth below plan levels. The sovereign debt situation should be alleviated by carrying out the bank recapitalization directly from the European Stability Mechanism to the banks, rather than through the sovereign as the intermediary. The large increase in the ratio of gross debt to GDP imposed by bank recapitalization is mostly an optical illusion because there would be a corresponding rise in state assets, but this increase could, nonetheless, further erode perceptions of sustainability.
Topic:
Debt, Economics, International Monetary Fund, Financial Crisis, and Budget
Political Geography:
Greece

7. Testing the Modigliani-Miller Theorem of Capital Structure Irrelevance for Banks

Author:
William R. Cline
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
Some advocates of far higher capital requirements for banks invoke the Modigliani-Miller theorem as grounds for judging that associated costs would be minimal. The M&M theorem holds that the average cost of capital to the firm does not depend on its capital structure (ratio of equity finance to debt finance), because any reduction in capital cost from switching to higher leverage using lower-cost debt is exactly offset by an induced increase in the unit cost of higher-cost equity capital as a consequence of the associated rise in risk. Statistical tests for large US banks in 2002–13 find that less than half of this M&M offset attains in practice. Higher capital requirements would thus impose increases in lending costs, with associated output costs from lower capital formation. These costs to the economy would need to be compared with benefits from lower risk of banking crises to arrive at optimal levels of capital requirements.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Politics, and Budget
Political Geography:
Global Focus