scholarly journals Globalization and Austerity: Flipping Partisan Effects on Fiscal Policy During (Recent) International Crises

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172110158
Author(s):  
Damian Raess

This article investigates the effect of government partisanship on fiscal policy outputs during the three international economic crises of 1981–1984, 1990–1994 and 2008–2013. Encompassing 19–23 advanced democracies, the statistical analysis suggests that partisan effects have increased over time and are characterized, in the two last crises, by a “new asymmetry” whereby left governments pursued more contractionary fiscal policies than non-left governments over the course of the business cycle. Furthermore, it attributes left governments’ endorsement of austere fiscal policies to the constraining effects of financial markets in the context of high/surging debt. This is supported by qualitative analysis of select government responses to the Global Financial Crisis, shedding new light on the new austerity that started in the early 2010s. The ideological mix with political partisanship during hard times surely is confusing to ordinary citizens. The article cautiously points to a neglected yet important international economic origin of our political discontents.

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (Supplement) ◽  
pp. 13-35
Author(s):  
Gernot Müller

AbstractThe conduct of fiscal policy has been altered considerably in the context of the global financial crisis, that is, at times when financial markets conditions were extraordinary turbulent. Yet financial market conditions determine how fiscal impulses are transmitted through the economy and, eventually, the size of the fiscal multiplier. I develop a comprehensive perspective on how financial market conditions alter the effects of fiscal policy on economic activity within a New Keynesian framework. Drawing on historical as well as systematic considerations, I distinguish a scenario of 1) “normal times” characterized by smoothly operating financial markets, 2) financial markets characterized by tight credit conditions in the private sector and constraints on monetary policy and 3) financial markets, in addition, characterized by high sovereign risk. I argue that the size and even the sign of the multiplier may differ across these scenarios.


Author(s):  
Gozde Es Polat ◽  
Onur Polat

Along with the global financial crisis that took place in 2008, the ineffectiveness of other policies used for exiting from the crisis has brought back the feasibility of fiscal policy as an alternative. It is accepted that the only way to overcome the severe shrinking of the total demand during the 2008 global financial crisis is expansionary fiscal policy applied globally. However, differences in the subjective conditions of the EU member countries in particular have not made it possible to implement an expansionary fiscal policy for all of the member countries. More developed EU countries have begun to carry out from expansionary fiscal policies, while the less developed ones have begun to conduct contractionary fiscal policies. With the awareness that the financial stability is a public good, the obstacles, challenges on the global fiscal policy implementation by the EU member states are discussed by examining fiscal policies performed during and after the 2008 global financial crisis.


Forecasting ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 498-500
Author(s):  
Alessia Paccagnini

The global financial crisis of 2007–2009 and the COVID-19 pandemic have heightened uncertainty in financial markets and the business cycle [...]


2013 ◽  
pp. 152-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Senchagov

Due to Russia’s exit from the global financial crisis, the fiscal policy of withdrawing windfall spending has exhausted its potential. It is important to refocus public finance to the real economy and the expansion of domestic demand. For this goal there is sufficient, but not realized financial potential. The increase in fiscal spending in these areas is unlikely to lead to higher inflation, given its actual trend in the past decade relative to M2 monetary aggregate, but will directly affect the investment component of many underdeveloped sectors, as well as the volume of domestic production and consumer demand.


2016 ◽  
pp. 26-46
Author(s):  
Marcin Jan Flotyński

The global financial crisis in 2007–2009 began a period of high volatility on the financial markets. Specifically, it caused an increased amplitude of fluctuations of the level of gross domestic products, the level of investment and consumption and exchange rates in particular countries. To address the adverse market circumstances, governments and central banks took actions in order to bolster the weakening global economy. The aim of this article is to present the anti-crisis actions in the United States and selected member states of the European Union, including Poland, and an assessment of their efficiency. The analysis conducted indicates that generally the actions taken in the United States in response to the crisis were faster and more adequate to the existing circumstances than in the European Union.


Author(s):  
Nauro F. Campos ◽  
Paul De Grauwe ◽  
Yuemei Ji

Structural reform policies move like the business cycle. There are moments when these are implemented with great fervour and others when they are put on the back burner or even dismantled. After the global financial crisis, and in particular the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, many countries were forced by creditor countries or were self-imposed to apply deep reforms to their product markets and especially to their labour markets. Now that Europe is recovering, the pressure to implement structural reforms has abated....


Author(s):  
Ravi Roy ◽  
Thomas D. Willett

The size and scope of financial sectors throughout the world have grown exponentially in tandem with the rise of globalization and increased capital mobility. The terms “economic globalization” and “financialization” are often discussed as inextricably related phenomena. Although the rapid increase in the number and variety of financial services and products during the past four decades has helped spur economic growth and create wealth on an unprecedented scale, the devastating fallout from the global financial crisis of 2008–2009, and the economic turbulence that followed, demonstrates how poorly managed financial sectors can simultaneously cause enormous pain. This chapter argues that if the opportunities created by economic globalization and financialization are to be maximized, while at the same tempering volatile financial markets, then the global financial system (and the national economies connected with it) must be fundamentally restructured. A number of ways that should be taken under consideration are discussed.


Thesis Eleven ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 072551362110533
Author(s):  
Henry Maher

The survival of neoliberal forms of governance after their apparent repudiation during the Global Financial Crisis is a problem that continues to generate significant scholarly controversy. One of the most influential accounts of the survival of neoliberalism in the crisis draws on Michel Foucault’s The Birth of Biopolitics to claim that states intervening to support financial markets during the crisis was simply the neoliberal system working as expected. Returning to Foucault’s original text, I argue this account constitutes a systematic misreading because it treats Foucault as having developed an instrumentalist theory of the neoliberal state, a possibility Foucault explicitly rejected. I suggest that the reasons that led Foucault to reject an instrumentalist theory of the state remain just as relevant today, and accordingly argue for a return to Foucault’s methodological decision to treat neoliberalism not as a theory of state but as a discourse which constructs a novel bio-political governmentality.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 99-116
Author(s):  
Łukasz Kurowski

Abstract While the legitimacy of the concept of the financial cycle (as distinct from the business cycle) in research and economic policy after the experience of the global financial crisis raises no concerns, the methodology for its application has become a subject of discussion. The purpose of this article is to indicate which research methods dominate in identifying a financial cycle and which methodological traps accompany them. The low level of critical perspective on the methods used to identify cycles often results in conclusions that have no economic justification and may result in erroneous decisions in economic policy and central bank practice. The case study carried out in the article confirms that the key elements in identifying a financial cycle are part of a long-term series covering at least two lengths of the financial cycle. In addition, because the results may be sensitive to the type of filter used, it is important not to rely on a single variable but rather to build indexes that take into account a number of them (including those obtained using filtration methods).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document