IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecopol/v13y2001i1p49-72.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Visible Hand? Bond Markets, Political Parties, Balanced Budget Laws, and State Government Debt

Author

Listed:
  • Robert C. Lowry

Abstract

Recent empirical work demonstrates that fiscal institutions in American states have real effects on state government bond rates, but the causal mechanisms have not been identified. We show how laws that restrict state governments' ability to carry forward a deficit improve the ability of investors to extract information from noisy signals. This affects the response of bond markets to repeated deficits in states that have these laws. We argue that partisan preferences for higher spending also increase risk for investors, leading to higher interest rates. We provide empirical support for our hypotheses using data from 1973–1995.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert C. Lowry, 2001. "A Visible Hand? Bond Markets, Political Parties, Balanced Budget Laws, and State Government Debt," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 49-72, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecopol:v:13:y:2001:i:1:p:49-72
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-0343.00083
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0343.00083
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-0343.00083?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
    ---><---

    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:bla:ecopol:v:13:y:2001:i:1:p:49-72. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0954-1985 .

    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.