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War and peace: Explosive U.S. public debt, 1791–2009

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  • Yoon, Gawon

Abstract

We show, in this study, that the U.S. public debt–GDP ratio was explosive in nature during the 1791–2009 sample period. The huge increase in U.S. debt during World War II is responsible for this result. Our findings differ profoundly from those generated by the standard unit root tests, which typically conclude that the U.S. public debt had a unit root.

Suggested Citation

  • Yoon, Gawon, 2012. "War and peace: Explosive U.S. public debt, 1791–2009," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 1-3.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:115:y:2012:i:1:p:1-3
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2011.11.020
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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.
    2. António Afonso, 2005. "Fiscal Sustainability: The Unpleasant European Case," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 61(1), pages 19-44, March.
    3. Joakim Westerlund & Silika Prohl, 2010. "Panel cointegration tests of the sustainability hypothesis in rich OECD countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(11), pages 1355-1364.
    4. Georgios Chortareas & George Kapetanios & Merih Uctum, 2008. "Nonlinear Alternatives to Unit Root Tests and Public Finances Sustainability: Some Evidence from Latin American and Caribbean Countries," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 70(5), pages 645-663, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Vicente Esteve & María A. Prats, 2021. "Financial bubbles and sustainability of public debt: The case of Spain," Working Papers 2111, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    2. Robinson Kruse & Christoph Wegener, 2019. "Explosive behaviour and long memory with an application to European bond yield spreads," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 66(1), pages 139-153, February.
    3. Bystrov, Victor & Mackiewicz, Michał, 2020. "Recurrent explosive public debts and the long-run fiscal sustainability," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 437-450.
    4. Jamel Saadaoui & Marco Chi Keung Lau & Yifei Cai, 2022. "Assessing Debt Stationarity and Sustainability in the Longer Run with Fourier DF Unit Root Tests and Time-Varying Fiscal Reaction Functions," Working Papers of BETA 2022-11, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    5. 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.
    6. Potrafke, Niklas & Reischmann, Markus, 2014. "Explosive Target balances of the German Bundesbank," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 439-444.
    7. Lixiong Yang, 2023. "Variable selection in threshold model with a covariate-dependent threshold," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 189-202, July.
    8. Niklas Potrafke & Markus Reischmann, 2013. "Explosive Target Balances," CESifo Working Paper Series 4297, CESifo.
    9. Chen, Shyh-Wei & Wu, An-Chi, 2018. "Is there a bubble component in government debt? New international evidence," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 467-486.
    10. Bystrov, Victor & Mackewicz, Michał, 2016. "Recurrent explosive behaviour of debt-to-GDP ratio," MPRA Paper 75203, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public debt; Sustainability; Recursive unit root test; Explosiveness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H62 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Deficit; Surplus
    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes

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