Cyclicality Of Government Spending Research Articles

Fiscal Space and Government-Spending Cyclicality: Evidence from Quantile Regression

Fiscal Space and Government-Spending Cyclicality: Evidence from Quantile Regression

Fiscal policy and economic activity in South Asia

AbstractThis paper analyzes whether fiscal policy in South Asia amplifies or smoothens business cycle fluctuations. It estimates several econometric models to explore the cyclicality of government spending and tax buoyancy. In South Asia, tax revenue increases less than one to one with changes in gross domestic product (GDP), but public spending increases more than proportionally. For each percentage point change in GDP growth, government expenditure changes by 1.3 percentage points. While changes in tax revenue have no significant impact on economic activity, the government spending multiplier is positive and significant: each additional US dollar (USD) of spending leads to an immediate increase in GDP of 0.2 USD and to an increase of 0.4 USD in the medium run. The impact of public spending on economic activity is entirely due to capital expenditure, which is also more procyclical. Procyclical public spending and a positive expenditure multiplier imply that fiscal policy in South Asia amplifies boom‐and‐bust cycles. These results are in line with those of other emerging markets and developing economies and robust to different model specifications and estimation strategies.

Dynamics of government spending cyclicality

Government spending policy has an important macroeconomic stabilization role. We empirically revisit the computation of fiscal cyclicality measures by employing a novel time-varying approach while explicitly dealing with endogeneity concerns. Analyzing a sample of 36 advanced economies from 1970 to 2015, the focus of the paper is on the spending side of the budget and its components. The average government spending cyclicality is −0.9, pointing to sample counter-cyclicality. However, there is considerable cross-country heterogeneity: in less than 50 percent of the sample, cyclicality coefficients are negative and statistically significant. We also uncover that government spending has become increasingly more countercyclical between 1970 and mid-1990s. Several factors drive the degree of spending cyclicality. More developed economies (more open to trade) tend to have a smaller (higher) degree of spending procyclicality. Countries with larger governments and those with better institutions are able to provide more fiscal stabilization.

Central-local government fiscal relations and cyclicality of public spending: evidence from China

In this study, we analyze how fiscal decentralization affects the cyclicality of government spending. We focus on China, which experienced fiscal decentralization during 1979–1993 and then partly centralized its revenue with the 1994 fiscal reform. By employing both time series and province-level panel data, we show that Chinese provincial and total government spending was strongly procyclical during the decentralization period before the reform, but both became significantly less procyclical with respect to nationwide output fluctuations after the reform. We suggest several channels through which the procyclicality of subnational government spending in decentralized fiscal federations could be restrained. We further find that less procyclical provincial government spending is associated with smaller output volatility.

Terms of trade volatility, government spending cyclicality, and economic growth

AbstractThis paper presents estimates of the effects that terms of trade volatility has on real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth. Based on 5‐year nonoverlapping panel data comprising 175 countries during 1980 to 2010, the paper finds that terms of trade volatility has significant negative effects on economic growth in countries with procyclical government spending. In countries where government spending is countercyclical, terms of trade volatility has no significant effect on growth. Conditional on the mediating role of government spending cyclicality, the GDP share of domestic credit to the private sector has no significant effect on the relationship between growth and terms of trade volatility.

Can Statistical Capacity Building Help Reduce Procyclical Fiscal Policy?

AbstractFew papers have attempted to assess the role of ‘capacity’, especially in the area of macroeconomic statistics. Consequently, we make an attempt to advance this literature through the construction of a ‘statistical capacity building index’ and then test its explanatory power on the cyclicality of government spending. Using panel data from 62 developing countries, we find evidence that improvements in this index are associated with less procyclicality of government spending over the period 1990–2012, with the significance of this relationship dependent upon the quality of administrative and technical capacity of budgetary institutions. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Terms of Trade Volatility, Government Spending Cyclicality, and Economic Growth

This paper presents estimates of the effects that terms of trade volatility has on real GDP per capita growth. Based on 5-year non-overlapping panel data comprising 175 countries during 1980-2010, the paper finds that terms of trade volatility has significant adverse effects on economic growth in countries with procyclical government spending; in countries where government spending is countercyclical terms of trade volatility has no significant effect on growth. Conditional on the mediating role of government spending cyclicality, the GDP share of domestic credit to the private sector has no significant effect on the relationship between growth and terms of trade volatility.

Can Statistical Capacity Building Help Reduce Procyclical Fiscal Policy in Developing Countries?

Few papers have attempted to assess the role of “capacity,” especially in the area of macroeconomic statistics. Consequently, we make an attempt to advance this literature through the construction of a “statistical capacity building index,” and then test its explanatory power on the cyclicality of government spending. Using panel data from 62 developing countries, we find evidence that improvements in this index are associated with less procyclicality of government spending over the period 1990–2012; with the significance of this relationship dependent upon the quality of administrative and technical capacity of budgetary institutions.

Can Statistical Capacity Building Help Reduce Procyclical Fiscal Policy in Developing Countries?

Few papers have attempted to assess the role of 'capacity,' especially in the area of macroeconomic statistics. Consequently, we make an attempt to advance this literature through the construction of a 'statistical capacity building index,' and then test its explanatory power on the cyclicality of government spending. Using panel data from 62 developing countries, we find evidence that improvements in this index are associated with less procyclicality of government spending over the period 1990-2012; with the significance of this relationship dependent upon the quality of administrative and technical capacity of budgetary institutions.

Government spending cyclicality: Evidence from transitory and persistent shocks in developing countries

We revisit the debate of whether government spending is procyclical in developing countries. Our main contribution is to argue that, beyond exogeneity of the income shock, an empirical analysis of government spending cyclicality must be carefully tailored to the shock's persistence. We first illustrate this point in a simple intertemporal model. We then use instrumental variables estimation to characterize the response of government expenditures to exogenous shocks with different degrees of persistence. Our estimation strategy exploits that: (i) year-to-year variations in rainfall have a significant positive contemporaneous effect on sub-Saharan African countries' real GDP but this effect is transitory; (ii) year-to-year variations in the GDP of sub-Saharan African countries' OECD trading partners have a significant positive contemporaneous effect on sub-Saharan African countries' real GDP and this effect is persistent. Using rainfall as an instrument for sub-Saharan African countries' GDP yields a government consumption expenditures elasticity response of around 0.4 (standard error 0.3). When the instrument is the GDP of sub-Saharan African countries' OECD trading partners the estimated government consumption expenditures elasticity response is around 1.1 (standard error 0.2). The elasticity response of government consumption expenditures to persistent income shocks is thus significantly higher relative to transitory shocks.

Procyclical government spending: Patterns of pressure and prudence in the OECD

This paper tests for differences in the cyclicality of government spending across functional categories. Evidence from 20 OECD countries suggests that procyclicality is more likely in smaller functional budgets, but capital spending is more likely to be procyclical for the larger spending categories.