IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/bofrdp/rdp1996_028.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fiscal policy and private consumption: Saving decisions: Evidence from Finland

Author

Listed:
  • Brunila, Anne

Abstract

The paper presents a theoretical model of private consumption that emcompasses both the conventional (Keynesian) view of fiscal policy and the Ricardian debt neutrality hypothesis.The effects of fiscal policy on private consumption are analyzed in an extended framework built on Blanchard's stochastic model of intertemporal optimization with finitely lived consumers, in which private consumption depends on expected lifetime wealth.The model also nests various hypotheses concerning the relationship between public spending and private consumption.Empirical analysis is based on the Finnish annual data from 1960-1995 and uses the nonlinear instrumental variable GMM estimator.The tests cannot reject the hypothesis that consumers are Ricardian.Moreover, the results suggest that in the consumers' utility functions, government consumption is a substitute for private consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Brunila, Anne, 1996. "Fiscal policy and private consumption: Saving decisions: Evidence from Finland," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 28/1996, Bank of Finland.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bofrdp:rdp1996_028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/211778/1/bof-rdp1996-028.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Evans, Paul, 1993. "Consumers Are Not Ricardian: Evidence from Nineteen Countries," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(4), pages 534-548, October.
    2. Hall, Robert E, 1978. "Stochastic Implications of the Life Cycle-Permanent Income Hypothesis: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(6), pages 971-987, December.
    3. Hansen, Lars Peter, 1982. "Large Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1029-1054, July.
    4. Barro, Robert J, 1989. "The Ricardian Approach to Budget Deficits," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 37-54, Spring.
    5. Weil, Philippe, 1989. "The equity premium puzzle and the risk-free rate puzzle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 401-421, November.
    6. Bertola, Giuseppe & Drazen, Allan, 1993. "Trigger Points and Budget Cuts: Explaining the Effects of Fiscal Austerity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 11-26, March.
    7. Barro, Robert J, 1974. "Are Government Bonds Net Wealth?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(6), pages 1095-1117, Nov.-Dec..
    8. Eichenbaum, Martin & Hansen, Lars Peter, 1990. "Estimating Models with Intertemporal Substitution Using Aggregate Time Series Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 8(1), pages 53-69, January.
    9. Francesco Giavazzi & Marco Pagano, 1990. "Can Severe Fiscal Contractions Be Expansionary? Tales of Two Small European Countries," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1990, Volume 5, pages 75-122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. John Campbell & Angus Deaton, 1989. "Why is Consumption So Smooth?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 56(3), pages 357-373.
    11. Himarios, Daniel, 1995. "Euler equation tests of Ricardian equivalence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 165-171, May.
    12. Milton Friedman, 1957. "Introduction to "A Theory of the Consumption Function"," NBER Chapters, in: A Theory of the Consumption Function, pages 1-6, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Modigliani, Franco & Sterling, Arlie, 1986. "Government Debt, Government Spending and Private Sector Behavior: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1168-1179, December.
    14. Stock, James H. & West, Kenneth D., 1988. "Integrated regressors and tests of the permanent-income hypothesis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 85-95, January.
    15. Karras, Georgios, 1994. "Government Spending and Private Consumption: Some International Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 26(1), pages 9-22, February.
    16. Stephen P. Zeldes, 1989. "Optimal Consumption with Stochastic Income: Deviations from Certainty Equivalence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(2), pages 275-298.
    17. B. Douglas Bernheim, 1987. "Ricardian Equivalence: An Evaluation of Theory and Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1987, Volume 2, pages 263-316, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Francesco Giavazzi & Marco Pagano, 1995. "Non-Keynesian Effects of Fiscal Policy Changes: International Evidence and the Swedish Experience," NBER Working Papers 5332, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Weil, Philippe, 1987. "Permanent budget deficits and inflation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 393-410, September.
    20. Evans, Paul, 1988. "Are Consumers Ricardian? Evidence for the United States," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(5), pages 983-1004, October.
    21. Leiderman, Leonardo & Razin, Assaf, 1988. "Testing Ricardian Neutrality with an Intertemporal Stochastic Model," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 20(1), pages 1-21, February.
    22. Aschauer, David Alan, 1985. "Fiscal Policy and Aggregate Demand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 117-127, March.
    23. Graham, Fred C., 1992. "On the importance of the measurement of consumption in tests of Ricardian equivalence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 431-434, April.
    24. Gregory Mankiw, N. & Shapiro, Matthew D., 1985. "Trends, random walks, and tests of the permanent income hypothesis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 165-174, September.
    25. Phillips, P.C.B., 1986. "Understanding spurious regressions in econometrics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 311-340, December.
    26. Feldstein, Martin, 1982. "Government deficits and aggregate demand," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 1-20.
    27. Campbell, John Y & Mankiw, N Gregory, 1990. "Permanent Income, Current Income, and Consumption," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 8(3), pages 265-279, July.
    28. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin Eichenbaum, 1988. "Is Theory Really Ahead of Measurement? Current Real Business Cycle Theories and Aggregate Labor Market Fluctuations," NBER Working Papers 2700, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    29. Seater, John J, 1993. "Ricardian Equivalence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 142-190, March.
    30. Sutherland, Alan, 1997. "Fiscal crises and aggregate demand: can high public debt reverse the effects of fiscal policy?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 147-162, August.
    31. Charles R. Bean, 1986. "The Estimation of "Surprise" Models and the "Surprise" Consumption Function," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 53(4), pages 497-516.
    32. Graham, Fred C, 1993. "Fiscal Policy and Aggregate Demand: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(3), pages 659-666, June.
    33. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8686 is not listed on IDEAS
    34. Sims, Christopher A & Stock, James H & Watson, Mark W, 1990. "Inference in Linear Time Series Models with Some Unit Roots," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 113-144, January.
    35. Hamilton, James D & Flavin, Marjorie A, 1986. "On the Limitations of Government Borrowing: A Framework for EmpiricalTesting," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 808-819, September.
    36. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    37. Kormendi, Roger C, 1983. "Government Debt, Government Spending, and Private Sector Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 994-1010, December.
    38. Nadeem U. Haque, 1988. "Fiscal Policy and Private Sector Saving Behavior in Developing Economies," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 35(2), pages 316-335, June.
    39. Blanchard, Olivier J, 1985. "Debt, Deficits, and Finite Horizons," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(2), pages 223-247, April.
    40. Leonardo Leiderman & Mario I. Blejer, 1988. "Modeling and Testing Ricardian Equivalence: A Survey," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 35(1), pages 1-35, March.
    41. Ni, Shawn, 1995. "An empirical analysis on the substitutability between private consumption and government purchases," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 593-605, December.
    42. Milton Friedman, 1957. "A Theory of the Consumption Function," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie57-1, March.
    43. Olivier Jean Blanchard & Stanley Fischer, 1989. "Lectures on Macroeconomics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262022834, December.
    44. Deaton, Angus, 1992. "Understanding Consumption," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288244.
    45. Haug, Alfred A, 1990. "Ricardian Equivalence, Rational Expectations, and the Permanent Income Hypothesis," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 22(3), pages 305-326, August.
    46. Lucas, Robert Jr, 1976. "Econometric policy evaluation: A critique," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 19-46, January.
    47. Graham, Fred C & Himarios, Daniel, 1991. "Fiscal Policy and Private Consumption: Instrumental Variables Tests of the "Consolidated Approach."," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 23(1), pages 53-67, February.
    48. Angus Deaton, 1986. "Life-Cycle Models of Consumption: Is the Evidence Consistent with the Theory?," NBER Working Papers 1910, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    49. Flavin, Marjorie A, 1981. "The Adjustment of Consumption to Changing Expectations about Future Income," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 974-1009, October.
    50. Johansen, Soren, 1988. "Statistical analysis of cointegration vectors," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 231-254.
    51. West, Kenneth D, 1988. "Asymptotic Normality, When Regressors Have a Unit Root," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(6), pages 1397-1417, November.
    52. Seater, John J. & Mariano, Roberto S., 1985. "New tests of the life cycle and tax discounting hypotheses," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 195-215, March.
    53. Marjorie Flavin, 1985. "Excess Sensitivity of Consumption to Current Income: Liquidity Constraints or Myopia?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 18(1), pages 117-136, February.
    54. Cushing, Matthew J, 1992. "Liquidity Constraints and Aggregate Consumption Behavior," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 30(1), pages 134-153, January.
    55. Evans, Paul & Karras, Georgios, 1996. "Private and government consumption with liquidity constraints," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 255-266, April.
    56. Hayashi, Fumio, 1982. "The Permanent Income Hypothesis: Estimation and Testing by Instrumental Variables," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(5), pages 895-916, October.
    57. Graham, Fred C & Himarios, Daniel, 1996. "Consumption, Wealth, and Finite Horizons: Tests of Ricardian Equivalence," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(3), pages 527-544, July.
    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. Brunila, Anne, 1997. "Current income and private consumption : Saving decisions : Testing the finite horizon model," Research Discussion Papers 6/1997, Bank of Finland.
    2. repec:zbw:bofrdp:1997_006 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Brunila, Anne, 1997. "Current income and private consumption: Saving decisions: Testing the finite horizon model," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 6/1997, Bank of Finland.
    4. Brunila, Anne, 1996. "Fiscal policy and private consumption : Saving decisions : Evidence from Finland," Research Discussion Papers 28/1996, Bank of Finland.
    5. repec:zbw:bofrdp:1996_028 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Lorenzo Pozzi, 2003. "Tax Discounting in a High‐debt Economy," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 65(3), pages 261-282, July.
    7. Elmendorf, Douglas W. & Gregory Mankiw, N., 1999. "Government debt," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 25, pages 1615-1669, Elsevier.
    8. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:5:y:2008:i:16:p:1-14 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. António Afonso, 2008. "Euler testing Ricardo and Barro in the EU," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 5(16), pages 1-14.
    10. Waqas, Muhamad & Awan, Masood Sarwar & Aslam, Muhammad Amir, 2011. "We are living on the cost of our children," MPRA Paper 32044, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Roberto Ricciuti, 2003. "Assessing Ricardian Equivalence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 55-78, February.
    12. Koumparoulis, Dimitrios, 2006. "Ευρωπαϊκή Δημοσιονομική Πολιτική Και Οικονομική Μεγέθυνση: Η Νεοκλασική Οικονομική Θεωρία Για Την Περίπτωση Της Ελλάδας [European Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth: The Neoclassical Economic Theory," MPRA Paper 44310, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. António Afonso, 2001. "Government indebtedness and european consumers behaviour," Working Papers Department of Economics 2001/12, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    14. Gianluigi Giorgioni & Ken Holden, 2003. "Ricardian equivalence, expansionary fiscal contraction and the stock market: a VECM approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(12), pages 1435-1443.
    15. Islam, Roumeen & Wetzel, Deborah L., 1991. "The macroeconomics of public sector deficits : the case of Ghana," Policy Research Working Paper Series 672, The World Bank.
    16. Parise, Gerald F., 1994. "Permanent income hypothesis and the cost of adjustment," ISU General Staff Papers 1994010108000012303, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    17. Griet Malengier & Lorenzo Pozzi, 2005. "Examining Ricardian Equivalence by estimating and bootstrapping a nonlinear dynamic panel model," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2005 61, Money Macro and Finance Research Group.
    18. Agustín García & Julián Ramajo, "undated". "Los Efectos De La Política Fiscal Sobre El Consumo Privado: Nueva Evidencia Para El Caso Español," Working Papers 13-02 Classification-JEL , Instituto de Estudios Fiscales.
    19. Khalid, Ahmed M., 1996. "Ricardian equivalence: Empirical evidence from developing economies," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 413-432, December.
    20. Orazio P. Attanasio, 1998. "Consumption Demand," NBER Working Papers 6466, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Duane Rockerbie, 1997. "Are consumers Ricardian when some are liquidity constrained? Evidence for the United States," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(6), pages 821-827.
    22. Becker, Torbjorn, 1997. "An investigation of Ricardian equivalence in a common trends model," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 405-431, August.
    23. Evans, Paul & Karras, Georgios, 1996. "Private and government consumption with liquidity constraints," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 255-266, April.

    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:rdp1996_028. 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.