Why Do Government Deficits Prevail? Prospect Theory of Government Budget Deficits

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomoko Matsumoto ◽  
Junko Kato
Keyword(s):  
Prospect Theory ◽  
Budget Deficits ◽  
Government Budget ◽  
Government Deficits

scholarly journals Government Deficits And The Public Debt: The Endless Controversy

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Frank J. Bonello
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Public Debt ◽  
Relative Size ◽  
American People ◽  
Budget Deficits ◽  
Government Budget ◽  
The Public ◽  
Government Deficits ◽  
The One

No economic topic has attracted more attention during the 1980s than the size of Federal government budget deficits and the corresponding rapid rise in the public debt. Crowding out news regarding Third World debt problems, U.S. foreign trade deficits, and the break up of American Telephone and Telegraph, Federal government budget deficits have been blamed for everything from high interest rates to the deterioration in the moral fiber of the American people. Deficits and debt have also caused political reversal: historically free spending Democrats blaming Reagan deficits for a variety of economic ills while the conservative Republican president treats the deficit with benign neglect.The purpose of this paper is not to answer all of the questions that have been raised regarding the causes and consequences of government deficits and debt. The initial concern is instead with the facts and figures on the absolute and relative size of the Federal governments recent deficits and debt. Next certain measurement issues are addressed for there is a continuing debate regarding appropriate procedures for expressing the governments budgetary outcomes. The third and final section of the paper reviews some of the arguments, theoretical and empirical, on the relation between deficits and debt on the one hand and interest rates on the other. In each section the intent is to survey rather than to present new theoretical arguments or new empirical evidence.

Interpreting the Reagan Deficits

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Sargent
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Federal Budget ◽  
Ronald Reagan ◽  
Government Budget ◽  
Government Deficits ◽  
Tax Smoothing ◽  
The Government ◽  
Monetary And Fiscal Policy

This chapter examines the large net-of-interest deficits in the U.S. federal budget that have marked the administration of Ronald Reagan. It explains the fiscal and monetary actions observed during the Reagan administration as reflecting the optimal decisions of government policymakers. The discussion is based on an equation whose validity is granted by all competing theories of macroeconomics: the intertemporal government budget constraint. The chapter first considers the government budget balance and the optimal tax smoothing model of Robert Barro before analyzing monetary and fiscal policy during the Reagan years: a string of large annual net-of-interest government deficits accompanied by a monetary policy stance that has been tight, especially before February 1985, and even more so before August 1982. Indicators of tight monetary policy are high real interest rates on government debt and pretax yields that exceed the rate of economic growth.

scholarly journals Budget Deficits: Rhetoric and Reality

1989 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Eisner
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
News Media ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Budget Deficit ◽  
Economic Problem ◽  
Budget Deficits ◽  
Relevant Model ◽  
Government Deficits ◽  
Economics Profession

Whatever the real or imagined ills of the economy, the news media, most politicians and a fair proportion of the economics profession are quick to point to the culprit: “the budget deficit.” No matter that few appear to know or care precisely what deficit they are talking about or how it is measured. No matter that few bother to explain in terms of a relevant model just how government deficits may be expected to impact the economy. No matter that few offer any empirical data to sustain their judgments. I believe there are serious problems with our fiscal policy. These relate to fundamental national priorities and the provision of public goods, now and for the future. But the current size of the federal deficit is not “our number one economic problem,” if indeed it is a problem at all.

Decomposition of Fiscal Deterioration in the OECD

2010 ◽  
Vol 213 ◽  
pp. F13-F18 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Budget Deficits ◽  
Government Budget ◽  
Fiscal Stimulus ◽  
Advanced Economies ◽  
The Government ◽  
Cumulative Deterioration ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Selection Of

Government fiscal positions in all the advanced economies suffered severe deteriorations during the financial crisis. Figure 1 illustrates the cumulative deterioration of the government budget ratio as a per cent of GDP between 2007 and 2009 in a selection of OECD economies. The sharpest declines materialised in Ireland, Spain and Finland, while public finances in Austria, Germany and Italy have held up better. Budget deficits have worsened in part because of the cyclical downturn, in part because of the policy response to the crisis, including both fiscal stimulus packages and certain fiscal costs related to government support of financial institutions, and in part because of a change in the relationship between revenue and production, which may prove longer-term.

scholarly journals Are Government Budget Deficits Inflationary? Evidence from Pakistan

1994 ◽  
Vol 33 (4II) ◽  
pp. 955-967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tayyeb Shabbir ◽  
Ayaz Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Budget Deficit ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Oil Price ◽  
Optimal Size ◽  
Budget Deficits ◽  
Government Budget ◽  
Economic Role ◽  
Current Account Deficits ◽  
Structural Adjustment Programmes

In academia as well as policy-making institutions, there has been a long standing interest in analysing the phenomenon of inflation. Amongst the possible determinants of inflation, budget deficits may be one whose importance might have grown since the oil price hikes of 1973-74 and in 1979. For many a developing countries these increases in oil price have been responsible for the massive current account deficits as well as rapidly increasing domestic budget deficits of the last decade or so. During the 1980s, the budget deficit for Pakistan also grew rapidly reaching a record high of 8.6 percent of the G D P in 1987-88. Lately in the backdrop of the recent structural adjustment programmes, there has been much interest in determining the optimal size and the macro economic role of the budget deficits. However, despite its growing importance, the effects of budget deficits are not well understood.

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