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The political economy of fiscal deficits and government production

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  • Natvik, Gisle J.

Abstract

This paper studies how disagreement over which goods government should provide affects resource allocation in the public sector. An incumbent combines pre-determined capital with labor to produce different goods in the current period, and accumulates physical and financial capital for future production. Capital-labor complementarity determines how anticipated political turnover shapes governments' choice between saving in physical capital or financial assets. Turnover tends to render the stock of physical capital for public production too low and inefficiently combined with labor. The main cost of political turnover is production inefficiency in the public sector, not a suboptimal savings level.

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  • Natvik, Gisle J., 2013. "The political economy of fiscal deficits and government production," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 81-94.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:58:y:2013:i:c:p:81-94
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2012.12.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Natvik, Gisle J., 2013. "The political economy of fiscal deficits and government production," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 81-94.
    2. Hiroki Kondo & Amihai Glazer, 2016. "Governmental Provision of Public Goods Need Not Crowd Out Private Provision," Working Papers 151607, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    3. Jon Fiva & Gisle Natvik, 2013. "Do re-election probabilities influence public investment?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 305-331, October.
    4. Ryo Arawatari & Tetsuo Ono, 2017. "Inequality and public debt: A positive analysis," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 1155-1173, November.
    5. Jon Fiva & Gisle Natvik, 2013. "Do re-election probabilities influence public investment?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 305-331, October.
    6. Lars-Erik Borge & Arnt O. Hopland, 2017. "Schools and public buildings in decay: the role of political fragmentation," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 85-105, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political economics; Budget deficits; Public investment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures
    • H6 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt

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