IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2008-039.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Big Government, High Debt, and Fiscal Adjustment in Small States

Author

Listed:
  • Rui Ota
  • Ms. Stephanie C Medina Cas

Abstract

Using a new fiscal dataset for small states, this paper analyzes the link between country size, government size, debt, and economic performance. It finds that on average small states have larger governments and higher public debt. Although there are intrinsic factors that explain why governments are bigger in small states, those with smaller governments and lower public debt tend to grow faster and are less vulnerable. Large fiscal adjustments, primarily through expenditure restraint, can underpin growth, although sometimes other elements can also impact. Since better governance is associated with lower debt, fiscal adjustment should be supported by governance improvements.

Suggested Citation

  • Rui Ota & Ms. Stephanie C Medina Cas, 2008. "Big Government, High Debt, and Fiscal Adjustment in Small States," IMF Working Papers 2008/039, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2008/039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=21559
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elmendorf, Douglas W. & Gregory Mankiw, N., 1999. "Government debt," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 25, pages 1615-1669, Elsevier.
    2. Harvey W. Armstrong & Robert Read, 1998. "Trade and Growth in Small States: The Impact of Global Trade Liberalisation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 563-585, June.
    3. Roberto Perotti, 1999. "Fiscal Policy in Good Times and Bad," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1399-1436.
    4. Easterly, William & Rebelo, Sergio, 1993. "Fiscal policy and economic growth: An empirical investigation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 417-458, December.
    5. Rupa Duttagupta & Mr. Guillermo Tolosa, 2006. "Fiscal Discipline and Exchange Rate Regimes: Evidence From the Caribbean," IMF Working Papers 2006/119, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Deborah Brautigam & Michael Woolcock, 2001. "Small States in a Global Economy: the Role of Institutions in Managing Vulnerability and Opportunity in Small Developing Countries," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2001-37, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. repec:lan:wpaper:898 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Mr. Hans P Lankes & Miss Katerina Alexandraki, 2004. "The Impact of Preference Erosionon Middle-Income Developing Countries," IMF Working Papers 2004/169, International Monetary Fund.
    9. repec:lan:wpaper:899 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Why Do More Open Economies Have Bigger Governments?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 997-1032, October.
    11. Alesina, Alberto & Wacziarg, Romain, 1998. "Openness, country size and government," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 305-321, September.
    12. Ms. Yan M Sun, 2003. "Do Fixed Exchange Rates Induce More Fiscal Discipline?," IMF Working Papers 2003/078, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Alesina, Alberto & Spolaore, Enrico & Wacziarg, Romain, 2005. "Trade, Growth and the Size of Countries," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 23, pages 1499-1542, Elsevier.
    14. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Mastruzzi, Massimo, 2005. "Governance matters IV : governance indicators for 1996-2004," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3630, The World Bank.
    15. Ms. Ratna Sahay, 2005. "Stabilization, Debt, and Fiscal Policy in the Caribbean," IMF Working Papers 2005/026, International Monetary Fund.
    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. Horscroft, Virginia, 2014. "Public sectors in the pacific islands : are they'too big'and do they'crowd out'the private sector ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7102, The World Bank.
    2. Marianne, Ojo, 2015. "Long term funding and regulation: facilitating financial stability and development (low income developing countries)," MPRA Paper 63406, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Davide Furceri & Marcos Poplawski Ribeiro, 2008. "Government Consumption Volatility and Country Size," Working Papers 2008-17, CEPII research center.
    4. Furceri, Davide & Poplawski Ribeiro, Marcos, 2008. "Government spending volatility and the size of nations," Working Paper Series 924, European Central Bank.

    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. Éloi Laurent & Jacques Le Cacheux, 2010. "Taille des pays et stratégies de croissance," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(1), pages 171-190.
    2. Keisuke Okada & Sovannroeun Samreth, 2021. "Oil bonanza and the composition of government expenditure," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 23-46, March.
    3. Serena Lamartina & Andrea Zaghini, 2011. "Increasing Public Expenditure: Wagner's Law in OECD Countries," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 12(2), pages 149-164, May.
    4. Eiji Fujii, 2017. "Government Size, Trade Openness, and Output Volatility: A Case of fully Integrated Economies," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 661-684, September.
    5. Shelton, Cameron A., 2007. "The size and composition of government expenditure," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(11-12), pages 2230-2260, December.
    6. Bretschger, Lucas, 2010. "Taxes, mobile capital, and economic dynamics in a globalizing world," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 594-605, June.
    7. Escobari Diego & Mollick André Varella, 2013. "Output growth and unexpected government expenditures," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 481-513, September.
    8. Lee, Woojin, 2003. "Is democracy more expropriative than dictatorship? Tocquevillian wisdom revisited," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 155-198, June.
    9. Shelton, Cameron A., 2008. "The aging population and the size of the welfare state: Is there a puzzle?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3-4), pages 647-651, April.
    10. Kotera, Go & Okada, Keisuke, 2017. "How does democratization affect the composition of government expenditure?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 145-159.
    11. Marco Gallegati & Massimo Tamberi, 2022. "Long swings in the growth of government expenditure: an international historical perspective," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 192(3), pages 227-248, September.
    12. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompqllr09h95chf5k8 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Kotera, Go & Okada, Keisuke, 2015. "How Does Democratization Affect the Composition of Government Expenditure?," MPRA Paper 67085, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Koskela, Erkki & Viren, Matti, 2003. "Government Size and Output Volatility: New International Evidence," Discussion Papers 857, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    15. M. Emranul Haque & Richard Kneller, 2008. "Public Investment and Growth: The Role of Corruption," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 98, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    16. Furceri, Davide & Poplawski Ribeiro, Marcos, 2008. "Government spending volatility and the size of nations," Working Paper Series 924, European Central Bank.
    17. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompqllr09h95chf5k8 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Ismael Sanz & Francisco J. Velázquez, 2006. "Has European Economic Integration Affected The Functional Composition Of Government Expenditures?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 24(2), pages 300-315, April.
    19. Mamta Kumari & Nalin Bharti, 2021. "Trade and logistics performance: does country size matter?," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 23(3), pages 401-423, September.
    20. König, Jörg & Ohr, Renate, 2011. "Small but beautiful? Economic impacts of the size of nations in the European Union," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 128, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    21. Dragan Tevdovski & Joana Madjoska & Petar Jolakoski & Branimir Jovanovic & Viktor Stojkoski, 2022. "Firm Profits and Government Activity: An Empirical Investigation," Croatian Economic Survey, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb, vol. 24(1), pages 43-82, June.
    22. Hrushikesh Mallick, 2024. "Does onslaught of globalisation induce pro-efficient government expenditures in a large transitioning economy? Empirical evidence from India," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1-46, April.

    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:imf:imfwpa:2008/039. 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: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.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.