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Strategic Use of Debt in Flemish Municipalities

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  • Goeminne Stijn

    (University College Ghent)

  • Smolders Carine

    (University College Ghent)

Abstract

This paper discusses the literature on strategic use of debt models and tests the seminal models of Persson & Svensson (1989) and Alesina & Tabellini (1990) on a dataset of Flemish municipalities. The literature on strategic deficit and debt behaviour originates from the question whether or not incumbent policymakers run higher budget deficits than they would if they were confident of re-election. In this paper, we introduce a vote function to estimate the probability of electoral defeat and present evidence of strategic debt in line with Persson & Svensson (1989), but only for leftist governments with expected vote percentages below 49%. There is no indication that rightist governments without re-election prospects are sensitive to strategic debt behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Goeminne Stijn & Smolders Carine, 2010. "Strategic Use of Debt in Flemish Municipalities," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-31, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:10:y:2010:i:1:n:58
    DOI: 10.2202/1935-1682.2097
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Benny Geys & Federico Revelli, 2009. "Decentralization, Competition and the local tax mix: evidence from Flanders," Working Papers 2009/17, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    2. Dilla, Diana, 2017. "Staatsverschuldung und Verschuldungsmentalität [Public Debt and Debt Mentality]," MPRA Paper 79432, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Boll David & Sidki Marcus, 2017. "Die politische Ökonomie deutscher Landkreise: Determinanten der Verschuldung," Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 66(3), pages 266-293, December.

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