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The Burden of Unanticipated Government Spending

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  • Burkhard Heer
  • Christian Scharrer

Abstract

We study the impact of a government spending shock on the distribution of income and wealth between cohorts in a dynamic stochastic Overlapping Generations model with two types of households, Ricardian households and rule-of-thumb consumers. We demonstrate that an unexpected increase in government spending increases income inequality and decreases wealth inequality. In contrast to the conventional wisdom that the financing of additional expenditures by debt rather than taxes especially burdens young generations, we find that a debt-financed increase in government spending also harms Ricardian households during retirement, while workers close to retirement benefit. The crucial element in our analysis is a wealth effect that results from the decline in the price of capital due to higher government debt.

Suggested Citation

  • Burkhard Heer & Christian Scharrer, 2016. "The Burden of Unanticipated Government Spending," CESifo Working Paper Series 5876, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5876
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    Cited by:

    1. Byoungchan Lee, 2020. "Business Cycles and Earnings Inequality," HKUST CEP Working Papers Series 202001, HKUST Center for Economic Policy.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    fiscal policy; debt financing; income and wealth distribution; rule-of-thumb consumers; Ricardian households; overlapping generations;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E30 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

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