IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/bofrdp/rdp1995_027.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Output gaps and the government budget balance: The case of Finland

Author

Listed:
  • Andersen, Kaare Guttorm
  • Männistö, Hanna-Leena

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to find a suitable method for estimating output gaps and calculating the cyclically adjusted government budget balance for Finland.Several different approaches for estimating a reference trend are briefly evaluated and a calculation of the cyclically adjusted government budget balance is presented.We review the production function approach, the middle-expansion trend, the Hodrick-Prescott filter and a multivariate filter developed by Laxton and Tetlow.We conclude that the Hodrick-Prescott filter and the multivariate filter have some properties that make them well suited for routine analysis of discretionary fiscal policy.Income and expenditure elasticities are estimated using BOF4 model simulations and cross checked by simple regression analysis.The cyclically adjusted government budget balance is then calculated for both central and general government using the reference trends and the estimated budget elasticities.Measuring the cyclically adjusted budget balance for the central government has important implications, because surpluses of the large pensions funds have improved the general government budget balance, which has caused a serious misjudgment of the underlying fiscal stance.Our calculations suggest that Finland's present government deficit is more structural than cyclical.

Suggested Citation

  • Andersen, Kaare Guttorm & Männistö, Hanna-Leena, 1995. "Output gaps and the government budget balance: The case of Finland," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 27/1995, Bank of Finland.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bofrdp:rdp1995_027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/211740/1/bof-rdp1995-027.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barrell, Ray & Sefton, James, 1995. "Output Gaps. Some evidence from the UK, France and Germany," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 151, pages 65-73, February.
    2. King, Robert G. & Rebelo, Sergio T., 1993. "Low frequency filtering and real business cycles," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 207-231.
    3. Singleton, Kenneth J., 1988. "Econometric issues in the analysis of equilibrium business cycle models," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2-3), pages 361-386.
    4. Finn E. Kydland & Edward C. Prescott, 1990. "Business cycles: real facts and a monetary myth," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 14(Spr), pages 3-18.
    5. de Leeuw, Frank & Holloway, Thomas M, 1985. "The Measurement and Significance of the Cyclically Adjusted Federal Budget and Debt," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 17(2), pages 232-242, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. repec:zbw:bofrdp:1995_027 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Restrepo Ochoa, Sergio I. & Vázquez Pérez, Jesús, 2002. "Cyclical Features of Uzawa-Lucas Endogenous Growth Model," DFAEII Working Papers 1988-088X, University of the Basque Country - Department of Foundations of Economic Analysis II.
    3. Cogley, Timothy & Nason, James M., 1995. "Effects of the Hodrick-Prescott filter on trend and difference stationary time series Implications for business cycle research," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 19(1-2), pages 253-278.
    4. Peter Brandner & Klaus Neusser, 1992. "Business cycles in open economies: Stylized facts for Austria and Germany," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 128(1), pages 67-87, March.
    5. Andersen, Kaare Guttorm & Männistö, Hanna-Leena, 1995. "Output gaps and the government budget balance : The case of Finland," Research Discussion Papers 27/1995, Bank of Finland.
    6. Pakko, Michael R, 2000. "The Cyclical Relationship between Output and Prices: An Analysis in the Frequency Domain," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 32(3), pages 382-399, August.
    7. Canova, Fabio, 1998. "Detrending and business cycle facts," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 475-512, May.
    8. Hildegart Ahumada & María Lorena Garegnani, 2000. "Assesing HP Filter Performance for Argentina and U.S. Macro Aggregates," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 3, pages 257-284, November.
    9. Tawadros, George B., 2011. "The stylised facts of Australia's business cycle," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 549-556.
    10. Rahman, Pk. Md. Motiur & Yamagata, Tatsufumi, 2004. "Business Cycles and Seasonal Cycles in Bangladesh," IDE Discussion Papers 1, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    11. C. Emre Alper, 2000. "Stylized Facts of Business Cycles, Excess Volatility and Capital Flows: Evidence from Mexico and Turkey," Working Papers 2000/11, Bogazici University, Department of Economics.
    12. Nicholas APERGIS, 1996. "The Cyclical Behavior Of Prices: Evidence From Seven Developing Countries," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 34(2), pages 204-211, June.
    13. Woitek, Ulrich, 2003. "Height cycles in the 18th and 19th centuries," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 243-257, June.
    14. Gregory, Allan W. & Smith, Gregor W., 1996. "Measuring business cycles with business-cycle models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 20(6-7), pages 1007-1025.
    15. Kaiser, Regina & Maravall, Agustin, 2005. "Combining filter design with model-based filtering (with an application to business-cycle estimation)," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 691-710.
    16. Apostolos Serletis & Todd Kemp, 2007. "The Cyclical Behavior of Monthly NYMEX Energy Prices," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Quantitative And Empirical Analysis Of Energy Markets, chapter 12, pages 149-155, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    17. Lawrence J. Christiano & Terry J. Fitzgerald, 2003. "The Band Pass Filter," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(2), pages 435-465, May.
    18. Roberto Astolfi & Dominique Ladiray & Gian Luigi Mazzi, 2001. "Business Cycle Extraction of Euro-Zone GDP: Direct versus Indirect Approach," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 70(3), pages 377-398.
    19. Burnside, Craig, 1998. "Detrending and business cycle facts: A comment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 513-532, May.
    20. Arranz, Miguel A. & Escribano, Álvaro & Mármol, Francesc, 2002. "Effects of Applying Linear and Nonlinear Filters on Tests for Unit Roots with Additive Outliers," UC3M Working papers. Economics we20091101, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:zbw:bofrdp:rdp1995_027. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bofgvfi.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.