IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedcer/y1999iqivp10-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Population aging and fiscal policy in Europe and the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Jagadeesh Gokhale
  • Bernd Raffelhuschen

Abstract

The authors report each country's total intertemporal public liability as the sum of its explicit outstanding debt and the present values of its implicit liabilities--the excess of projected transfers and government purchases over tax revenues. They find rapid, persistent population aging in almost every European country. They also calculate that for European countries with the highest implicit liabilities, eliminating total intertemporal liabilities would require tax increases exceeding 4 percent of GDP. Compared to Europe, the future challenges of population aging and fiscal problems in the United States seem far more benign.

Suggested Citation

  • Jagadeesh Gokhale & Bernd Raffelhuschen, 1999. "Population aging and fiscal policy in Europe and the United States," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Q IV, pages 10-20.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcer:y:1999:i:qiv:p:10-20
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.clevelandfed.org/Research/review/1999/99-q4-gokhale.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/scribd/?toc_id=217795&filepath=/docs/publications/frbclevreview/rev_frbclev_1999q4.pdf&start_page=12#scribd-open
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan J. Auerbach & Jagadeesh Gokhale & Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 1991. "Generational Accounts: A Meaningful Alternative to Deficit Accounting," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 55-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Auerbach, Alan J. & Kotlikoff, Laurence J. & Leibfritz, Willi (ed.), 1999. "Generational Accounting around the World," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226032139, December.
    3. Nicola Sartor & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Willi Leibfritz, 1999. "Generational Accounts for Italy," NBER Chapters, in: Generational Accounting around the World, pages 299-324, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Raffelhuschen, B., 1999. "Generational Accounting in Europe," Norway; Department of Economics, University of Bergen 196, Department of Economics, University of Bergen.
    5. Jagadeesh Gokhale & Benjamin R. Page & John Sturrock, 1999. "Generational Accounts for the United States: An Update," NBER Chapters, in: Generational Accounting around the World, pages 489-518, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Alan J. Auerbach & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Willi Leibfritz, 1999. "Generational Accounting around the World," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number auer99-1, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joe Ruggeri & Yang Zou, 2006. "Measures of Fiscal Dependency," Public Finance Review, , vol. 34(4), pages 381-403, July.
    2. Eugene Goryunov & Maria Kazakova & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Arseny Mamedov & Kristina Nesterova & Vladimir Nazarov & Elena Grishina & Pavel Trunin & Alexey Shpenev, 2013. "Russia's Fiscal Gap," NBER Working Papers 19608, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
      • Goryunov, Eugene & Kazakova, Marija & Kotlikoff, Laurence J. & Mamedov, Arseny & Nesterova, Kristina & Nazarov, Vladimir & Grišina, Elena & Trunin, Pavel V. & Shpenev, Alexey, 2013. "Russia's Fiscal Gap," EconStor Preprints 121938, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    3. Sergey Sinelnikov-Murylev & Eugene Goryunov & Laurence Kotlikoff, 2015. "Theoretical foundations of fiscal gap as a long-term fiscal sustainability indicator and its estimates for Russia," Research Paper Series, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, issue 168P, pages 1-58.
    4. Holmøy, Erling & Strøm, Birger, 2013. "Computable General Equilibrium Assessments of Fiscal Sustainability in Norway," Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, in: Peter B. Dixon & Dale Jorgenson (ed.), Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 105-158, Elsevier.
    5. Goryunov, Evgeny & Kotlikoff, Lawrence & Sinelnikov-Murylev, Sergey, 2015. "The fiscal gap: An estimate for Russia," Russian Journal of Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 240-256.

    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. Kotlikoff, Laurence J., 2002. "Generational policy," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 27, pages 1873-1932, Elsevier.
    2. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Tax incidence," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 26, pages 1787-1872, Elsevier.
    3. Gemma Abío & Eduard Berenguer & Holger Bonin & Joan Gil & Concepció Patxot, 2003. "Is the deficit under control? A generational accounting perspective on fiscal policy and labour market trends in Spain," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 27(2), pages 309-341, May.
    4. Beetsma, Roel & Bettendorf, Leon & Broer, Peter, 2003. "The budgeting and economic consequences of ageing in the Netherlands," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 987-1013, September.
    5. Alan J. Auerbach & Philip Oreopoulos, 1999. "Generational Accounting and Immigration in the United States," NBER Working Papers 7041, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Nicola Sartor, 2001. "The Long-run Effects of the Italian Pension Reforms," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 8(1), pages 83-111, January.
    7. Guillaume Allègre & Thomas Melonio & Xavier Timbeau, 2012. "Dépenses publiques d'éducation et inégalités. Une perspective de cycle de vie," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 63(6), pages 1055-1079.
    8. Martin Larch & João Nogueira Martins, 2007. "Fiscal indicators - Proceedings of the the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs Workshop held on 22 September 2006 in Brussels," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 297, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    9. repec:pri:cepsud:74bradford is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Osmel Manzano & Jose Luis Saboin, 2021. "Reverse Causality between Oil Policy and Fiscal Policy? The Venezuelan Experience," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, April.
    11. Andrew Mason & Ronald Lee & An-Chi Tung & Mun-Sim Lai & Tim Miller, 2009. "Population Aging and Intergenerational Transfers: Introducing Age into National Accounts," NBER Chapters, in: Developments in the Economics of Aging, pages 89-122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Kazakova, Maria & Nesterova, Kristina, 2015. "Long-Term Forecast of the Main Parameters of the Budgetary System of Russia," Published Papers 2309, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    13. Bassetto, Marco & Kocherlakota, Narayana, 2004. "On the irrelevance of government debt when taxes are distortionary," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 299-304, March.
    14. David F. Bradford, 2001. "Reforming Budgetary Language," Working Papers 128, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    15. Alan J. Auerbach & Young Jun Chun & Ilho Yoo, 2005. "The Fiscal Burden of Korean Reunification: A Generational Accounting Approach," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 61(1), pages 62-97, March.
    16. Philip Oreopoulos & Alan J. Auerbach, 1999. "Analyzing the Fiscal Impact of U.S. Immigration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 176-180, May.
    17. Leon Bettendorf & A. Horst & N. Draper & C. Ewijk & R. Mooij & H. Rele, 2011. "Ageing and the Conflict of Interest Between Generations," De Economist, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 257-278, September.
    18. Holger Hinte, 2014. "What determines the net fiscal effects of migration?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-78, June.
    19. Alan J. Auerbach & Philip Oreopoulos, 2000. "The Fiscal Effect of US Immigration: A Generational-Accounting Perspective," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 14, pages 123-156, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/5l6uh8ogmqildh09h84a0it2m is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Simonovits, András & Gál, Róbert Iván & Tarcali, Géza, 2001. "Korosztályi elszámolás a magyar nyugdíjrendszerben [Generational accounting and the Hungarian pension reform]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(4), pages 291-306.
    22. Koch, Daniel, 2011. "Wirksame Begrenzung von Staatsverschuldung auf europäischer Ebene," Discussion Paper Series 114, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Chair of Economic Order and Social Policy.

    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:fip:fedcer:y:1999:i:qiv:p:10-20. 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: 4D Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbclus.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.