IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reecon/v68y2014i3p208-213.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fiscal imbalances and asymmetric adjustment under Labour and Conservative governments in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Kollias, Christos
  • Papadamou, Stephanos
  • Psarianos, Iacovos

Abstract

This paper examines whether the political colour of an incumbent government affects the speed at which fiscal imbalances are corrected in the case of the UK. Using quarterly data, we examine whether Conservative or Labour governments are more prone to operate under a soft budget constraint and vis-à-vis i.e. to adhere to a hard budget strategy. The tests, using quarterly data, cover the period 1961–2011 and the results reported herein reveal differences in the speed at which fiscal imbalances are corrected by Labour and Conservative governments. The former are more inclined to operate under a soft budget constraint whereas the latter under a hard budget constraint.

Suggested Citation

  • Kollias, Christos & Papadamou, Stephanos & Psarianos, Iacovos, 2014. "Fiscal imbalances and asymmetric adjustment under Labour and Conservative governments in the UK," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 208-213.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reecon:v:68:y:2014:i:3:p:208-213
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rie.2014.06.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090944314000301
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rie.2014.06.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Garcia, Sophie & Henin, Pierre-Yves, 1999. "Balancing budget through tax increases or expenditure cuts: is it neutral?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 591-612, December.
    2. Oluwole Owoye & Olugbenga A. Onafowora, 2011. "The Relationship between Tax Revenues and Government Expenditures in European Union and Non-European Union OECD Countries," Public Finance Review, , vol. 39(3), pages 429-461, May.
    3. Nicholas Apergis & James E. Payne & James W. Saunoris, 2012. "Tax-spend nexus in Greece: are there asymmetries?," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 39(3), pages 327-336, December.
    4. de Haan, Jakob & Sturm, Jan-Egbert, 1994. "Political and Institutional Determinants of Fiscal Policy in the European Community," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 80(1-2), pages 157-172, July.
    5. Nicholas Apergis & James E. Payne & James W. Saunoris, 2012. "Tax‐spend nexus in Greece: are there asymmetries?," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 39(3), pages 327-336, July.
    6. Philip Arestis & Andrea Cipollini & Bassam Fattouh, 2004. "Threshold Effects in the U.S. Budget Deficit," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 42(2), pages 214-222, April.
    7. Frederick Ploeg, 2010. "Political economy of prudent budgetary policy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 17(3), pages 295-314, June.
    8. Christos Kollias & Susana-Maria Paleologou, 2006. "Fiscal policy in the European Union: Tax and spend, spend and tax, fiscal synchronisation or institutional separation?," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 33(2), pages 108-120, May.
    9. Koren, Stephan & Stiassny, Alfred, 1998. "Tax and Spend, or Spend and Tax? An International Study," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 163-191, April.
    10. Bajo-Rubio, Oscar & Diaz-Roldan, Carmen & Esteve, Vicente, 2004. "Searching for threshold effects in the evolution of budget deficits: an application to the Spanish case," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 239-243, February.
    11. Christos Kollias & Stelios Makrydakis, 2000. "Tax and spend or spend and tax? Empirical evidence from Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5), pages 533-546.
    12. Xavier Ramos & Oriol Roca-Sagales, 2008. "Long-Term Effects of Fiscal Policy on the Size and Distribution of the Pie in the UK," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 29(3), pages 387-411, September.
    13. John Thornton, 2009. "Do fiscal responsibility laws matter? Evidence from emerging market economies suggests not," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 127-132.
    14. Paleologou, Suzanna-Maria, 2013. "Asymmetries in the revenue–expenditure nexus: A tale of three countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 52-60.
    15. Anne Brunila & Marco Buti & Jan In 'T Veld, 2003. "Fiscal Policy in Europe: How Effective Are Automatic Stabilisers?," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 1-24, March.
    16. Belke, Ansgar & Potrafke, Niklas, 2012. "Does government ideology matter in monetary policy? A panel data analysis for OECD countries," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 1126-1139.
    17. James Payne & Hassan Mohammadi, 2006. "Are Adjustments in the U.S. Budget Deficit Asymmetric? Another Look at Sustainability," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 34(1), pages 15-22, March.
    18. Marcela Eslava, 2011. "The Political Economy Of Fiscal Deficits: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 645-673, September.
    19. Andrea Cipollini & Bassam Fattouh & Kostas Mouratidis, 2009. "Fiscal Readjustments In The United States: A Nonlinear Time‐Series Analysis," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(1), pages 34-54, January.
    20. Bradley T. Ewing & James E. Payne & Mark A. Thompson & Omar M. Al-Zoubi, 2006. "Government Expenditures and Revenues: Evidence from Asymmetric Modeling," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(1), pages 190-200, July.
    21. Joshy Easaw & Dean Garratt, 2000. "Elections and UK government expenditure cycles in the 1980s: an empirical analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 381-391.
    22. Milanovic, Branko, 2000. "The median-voter hypothesis, income inequality, and income redistribution: an empirical test with the required data," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 367-410, September.
    23. James E. Payne, 2003. "A Survey of the International Empirical Evidence on the Tax-Spend Debate," Public Finance Review, , vol. 31(3), pages 302-324, May.
    24. Cipollini, Andrea, 2001. "Testing for Government Intertemporal Solvency: A Smooth Transition Error Correction Model Approach," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 69(6), pages 643-655, December.
    25. Johansen, Soren, 1988. "Statistical analysis of cointegration vectors," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 231-254.
    26. Giavazzi, Francesco & Jappelli, Tullio & Pagano, Marco, 2000. "Searching for non-linear effects of fiscal policy: Evidence from industrial and developing countries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(7), pages 1259-1289, June.
    27. Andrea Cipollini, 2001. "Testing For Government Intertemporal Solvency: A Smooth Transition Error Correction Model Approach," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 69(6), pages 643-655, December.
    28. Schalck, Christophe, 2012. "Investigating heterogeneity in European fiscal behaviours," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 383-390.
    29. Easaw, Joshy Z. & Garratt, Dean, 2006. "General elections and government expenditure cycles: Theory and evidence from the UK," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 292-306, June.
    30. Gabriella Legrenzi & Costas Milas, 2012. "Nonlinearities And The Sustainability Of The Government'S Intertemporal Budget Constraint," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 50(4), pages 988-999, October.
    31. Tsangyao Chang & Yuan-Hong Ho, 2002. "A Note on Testing ¡°Tax-and-Spend, Spend-and-Tax or Fiscal Synchronization¡±: The Case of China," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 27(1), pages 151-160, June.
    32. Tsangyao Chang & Wen Rong Liu & Steven Caudill, 2002. "Tax-and-spend, spend-and-tax, or fiscal synchronization: new evidence for ten countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(12), pages 1553-1561.
    33. Ahmed, Sultan & Greene, Kenneth V, 2000. "Is the Median Voter a Clear-Cut Winner? Comparing the Median Voter Theory and Competing Theories in Explaining Local Government Spending," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 105(3-4), pages 207-230, December.
    34. Easaw, J. Z. & Garratt, D., 1999. "UK government expenditure and electoral security in the 1980s: a non-linear analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 287-292, March.
    35. George A Vamvoukas, 2012. "Panel data modelling and the tax-spend controversy in the euro zone," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(31), pages 4073-4085, November.
    36. Saunoris, James W. & Payne, James E., 2010. "Tax more or spend less? Asymmetries in the UK revenue-expenditure nexus," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 478-487, July.
    37. Graham Bird & Alex Mandilaras, 2013. "Fiscal imbalances and output crises in Europe: will the fiscal compact help or hinder?," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 1-16.
    38. Graham Bird & Alex Mandilaras, 2013. "Fiscal imbalances and output crises in Europe: will the fiscal compact help or hinder?," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 1-16, March.
    39. Holmes, Mark J., 2011. "Threshold cointegration and the short-run dynamics of twin deficit behaviour," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 271-277, September.
    40. Brian L. Goff & Robert D. Tollison, 2003. "The Monopsony Power of the Median Voter," Public Finance Review, , vol. 31(2), pages 180-188, March.
    41. Andrikopoulos, Andreas & Loizides, Ioannis & Prodromidis, Kyprianos, 2004. "Fiscal policy and political business cycles in the EU," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 125-152, March.
    42. Matthew Zapf & James Payne, 2009. "Asymmetric modelling of the revenue-expenditure nexus: evidence from aggregate state and local government in the US," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(9), pages 871-876.
    43. Randall Holcombe & Steven Caudill, 1985. "Tax shares and government spending in a median voter model," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 197-205, January.
    44. Ioannou, Demosthenes & Stracca, Livio, 2014. "Have the euro area and EU governance worked? Just the facts," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-17.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nicolas Afflatet & Stephanos Papadamou, 2016. "Public debt and borrowing: Are governments disciplined by financial markets?," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1225346-122, December.
    2. Sergey Zhavoronkov & Konstantin Yanovskiy & Kirill Rodionov, 2015. "Political Factors of the Cuts and Surges in Government Spending: The Effects on Old Market Democracies and Post-Communist Countries," Working Papers 146, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, revised 2015.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. A. Phiri, 2019. "Asymmetries in the revenue–expenditure nexus: new evidence from South Africa," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 1515-1547, May.
    2. Trachanas, Emmanouil & Katrakilidis, Constantinos, 2013. "Fiscal deficits under financial pressure and insolvency: Evidence for Italy, Greece and Spain," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 730-749.
    3. Paleologou, Suzanna-Maria, 2013. "Asymmetries in the revenue–expenditure nexus: A tale of three countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 52-60.
    4. Oyeyinka OMOSHORO-JONES, 2020. "Investigating The Government Revenue–Expenditure Nexus: Empirical Evidence For The Free State Province In A Multivariate Model," Theoretical and Practical Research in the Economic Fields, ASERS Publishing, vol. 11(2), pages 138-156.
    5. Taner TURAN & Mesut KARAKAŞ, 2018. "The Relationship between Government Spending and Revenue: Nonlinear Bounds Testing Approach (NARDL)," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society.
    6. Andrew Phiri, 2018. "How sustainable are fiscal budgets in the Kingdom of Swaziland?," Working Papers 1810, Department of Economics, Nelson Mandela University, revised Mar 2018.
    7. Olumuyiwa Ganiyu Yinusa & Olalekan Bashir Aworinde & Isiaq Olasunkanmi Oseni, 2017. "The Revenue-Expenditure Nexus in Nigeria: Assymetric Cointegration Approach," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 15(1), pages 47-61.
    8. Magazzino, Cosimo & Brady, Gordon L. & Forte, Francesco, 2019. "A panel data analysis of the fiscal sustainability of G-7 countries," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    9. Athanasios Athanasenas & Constantinos Katrakilidis & Emmanouil Trachanas, 2014. "Government spending and revenues in the Greek economy: evidence from nonlinear cointegration," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(2), pages 365-376, May.
    10. Ahmad Zubaidi Baharumshah & Aliyu Alhaji Jibrilla & Abdalla Sirag & Hamisu Sadi Ali & Ibrahim Muye Muhammad, 2016. "Public Revenue-Expenditure Nexus in South Africa: Are there Asymmetries?," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 84(4), pages 520-537, December.
    11. Manuchehr Irandoust, 2018. "Government spending and revenues in Sweden 1722–2011: evidence from hidden cointegration," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 543-557, August.
    12. Michele Salvi & Christoph A. Schaltegger, 2023. "Tax more or spend less? Historical evidence from Switzerland’s federal budget plans," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(3), pages 678-705, June.
    13. George A. Vamvoukas, 2011. "Panel Data Modeling and the Tax-Spend Controversy in the Euro Zone," Post-Print hal-00716629, HAL.
    14. Aliyu Alhaji Jibrilla, 2016. "Fiscal sustainability in the presence of structural breaks: Does overconfidence on resource exports hurt government’s ability to finance debt? Evidence from Nigeria," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1170317-117, December.
    15. Syed Ali Raza & Syed Zaki Hassan & Arshian Sharif, 2019. "Asymmetric Relationship Between Government Revenues and Expenditures in a Developing Economy: Evidence from a Non-linear Model," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 20(5), pages 1179-1195, October.
    16. Chen, Shyh-Wei & Wu, An-Chi, 2018. "Is there a bubble component in government debt? New international evidence," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 467-486.
    17. Tsong, Ching-Chuan & Wu, Chien-Wei & Chiu, Hsien-Hung & Lee, Cheng-Feng, 2013. "Covariate unit root tests under structural change and asymmetric STAR dynamics," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 101-112.
    18. Chen, Shyh-Wei, 2014. "Testing for fiscal sustainability: New evidence from the G-7 and some European countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 1-15.
    19. Ntokozo Patrick Nzimande & Harold Ngalawa, 2022. "Tax-Spend or Spend-Tax? The Case of Southern Africa," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-10, April.
    20. Saunoris, James W. & Payne, James E., 2010. "Tax more or spend less? Asymmetries in the UK revenue-expenditure nexus," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 478-487, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reecon:v:68:y:2014:i:3:p:208-213. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.