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Human capital formation and public debt: growth and welfare effects of three different deficit policies

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  • Alfred Greiner

Abstract

We analyze an endogenous growth model public educational spending. We show that the balanced budget policy and the policy with a slight deficit yield higher growth than a debt policy where public debt grows at the same rate as GDP, unless the government is a creditor. As concerns welfare, it can be demonstrated that a strong deficit policy yields lower welfare than a balanced budget and a slight deficit policy, unless initial debt ratios are low and the intertemporal elasticity of substitution is high. Finally, there may exist an inverted U-shaped relation between welfare and deficit-financed educational spending.

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  • Alfred Greiner, 2016. "Human capital formation and public debt: growth and welfare effects of three different deficit policies," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 369-385, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jecprf:v:19:y:2016:i:4:p:369-385
    DOI: 10.1080/17487870.2015.1128834
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    Cited by:

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