IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/grz/wpaper/2015-02.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Stochastic Stability of Public Debt: The Case of Austria

Author

Listed:
  • Maximilian Goedl

    (Karl-Franzens University of Graz)

  • Christoph Zwick

    (Karl-Franzens University of Graz)

Abstract

This paper extends a method developed by Hall (2014) to characterize the long-run distribution of public debt and applies it to Austria. We use Bayesian estimation techniques to incorporate data from other countries which makes the model applicable to cases in which available time series is short. We find that the long-run trend of Austrian fiscal policy is in line with the 60% threshold of the Maastricht treaty. Our results suggest that the strong increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio in the aftermath of the financial crisis represents a tail event which, given the long-run trend, does not provide a sufficient cause for rational investors to question the sustainability of Austrian public finances.

Suggested Citation

  • Maximilian Goedl & Christoph Zwick, 2015. "Stochastic Stability of Public Debt: The Case of Austria," Graz Economics Papers 2015-02, University of Graz, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:grz:wpaper:2015-02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www100.uni-graz.at/vwlwww/forschung/RePEc/wpaper/2015-02.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gottfried Haber & Reinhard Neck, 2006. "Sustainability of Austrian public debt: a political economy perspective," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 141-154, June.
    2. Mauro, Paolo & Romeu, Rafael & Binder, Ariel & Zaman, Asad, 2015. "A modern history of fiscal prudence and profligacy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 55-70.
    3. Mendoza, Enrique G. & Ostry, Jonathan D., 2008. "International evidence on fiscal solvency: Is fiscal policy "responsible"?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(6), pages 1081-1093, September.
    4. Henning Bohn, 1998. "The Behavior of U. S. Public Debt and Deficits," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(3), pages 949-963.
    5. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2011. "From Financial Crash to Debt Crisis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1676-1706, August.
    6. Trehan, Bharat & Walsh, Carl E, 1991. "Testing Intertemporal Budget Constraints: Theory and Applications to U.S. Federal Budget and Current Account Deficits," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 23(2), pages 206-223, May.
    7. Hall Robert E., 2014. "Fiscal Stability of High-Debt Nations under Volatile Economic Conditions," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 4-22, February.
    8. Bohn, Henning, 1995. "The Sustainability of Budget Deficits in a Stochastic Economy," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(1), pages 257-271, February.
    9. Michael Getzner & Ernst Glatzer & Reinhard Neck, 2001. "On the Sustainability of Austrian Budgetary Policies," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 28(1), pages 21-40, March.
    10. Neck, Reinhard & Getzner, Michael, 2001. "Politico-Economic Determinants of Public Debt Growth: A Case Study for Austria," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 109(3-4), pages 243-268, December.
    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. Gilles Dufrénot & Carolina Ulloa Suarez, 2019. "Public finance sustainability in Europe: a behavioral model," AMSE Working Papers 1929, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.

    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. Maximilian Goedl & Christoph Zwick, 2018. "Assessing the stochastic stability of public debt: the case of Austria," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 559-585, August.
    2. Kyung-woo Lee & Jong-Hee Kim & Taeyoon Sung, 2018. "A test of fiscal sustainability in the EU countries," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(5), pages 1170-1196, October.
    3. Markus Reischmann, 2016. "Empirical Studies on Public Debt and Fiscal Transfers," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 63.
    4. Cho, Dooyeon & Lee, Kyung-woo, 2022. "Population aging and fiscal sustainability: Nonlinear evidence from Europe," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    5. Canofari, Paolo & Marini, Giancarlo & Piergallini, Alessandro, 2020. "Financial Crisis and Sustainability of US Fiscal Deficit: Indicators or Tests?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 192-204.
    6. Srđan Redžepagić & Matthieu Llorca, 2007. "Does Politics Matter in the Conduct of Fiscal Policy? Political Determinants of the Fiscal Sustainability: Evidence from Seven Individual Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC)," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 54(4), pages 489-500, December.
    7. Hyejin Ko, 2020. "Measuring fiscal sustainability in the welfare state: fiscal space as fiscal sustainability," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 531-554, May.
    8. Everaert, Gerdie & Jansen, Stijn, 2018. "On the estimation of panel fiscal reaction functions: Heterogeneity or fiscal fatigue?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 87-96.
    9. Betty Daniel & Christos Shiamptanis, 2008. "Fiscal Policy in the European Monetary Union," Discussion Papers 08-11, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.
    10. Xavier Debrun & Tidiane Kinda, 2016. "That Squeezing Feeling: The Interest Burden and Public Debt Stabilization," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 147-178, June.
    11. Niklas Potrafke & Markus Reischmann, 2015. "Fiscal Transfers and Fiscal Sustainability," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(5), pages 975-1005, August.
    12. Reicher, Claire, 2014. "Systematic fiscal policy and macroeconomic performance: A critical overview of the literature," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 8, pages 1-37.
    13. Gerdie Everaert & Stijn Jansen, 2017. "On The Estimation Of Panel Fiscal Functions: Heterogeneity Or Fiscal Fatigue?," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 17/930, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    14. Piotr Ciżkowicz & Andrzej Rzońca & Rafał Trzeciakowski, 2015. "Windfall of Low Interest Payments and Fiscal Sustainability in the Euro Area: Analysis through Panel Fiscal Reaction Functions," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 475-510, November.
    15. Jakob Korbinian Eberl, 2016. "The Collateral Framework of the Eurosystem and Its Fiscal Implications," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 69.
    16. Reinhard Neck & Gottfried Haber, 2012. "Is the Austrian public debt sustainable?," International Journal of Sustainable Economy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(1), pages 1-16.
    17. Niklas Potrafke & Markus Reischmann, 2012. "Fiscal Equalization Schemes and Fiscal Sustainability," ifo Working Paper Series 141, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    18. Paniagua, Jordi & Sapena, Juan & Tamarit, Cecilio, 2017. "Fiscal sustainability in EMU countries: A continued fiscal commitment?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 85-97.
    19. Valentinyi, Ákos & Pápa, Levente, 2008. "Költségvetési fenntarthatóság [Budget sustainability]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(5), pages 395-426.
    20. Maria Cornachione Kula, 2019. "The behavior of U.S. States’ debts and deficits," Public Sector Economics, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 43(3), pages 267-289.

    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:grz:wpaper:2015-02. 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: Michael Scholz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vgrazat.html .

    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.