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Ricardian approach to fiscal sustainability in India

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  • Pradhan, Krishanu

    (Institute for Social and Economic Change)

Abstract

There are several approaches to assess sustainability of a country’s public finance. Ricardian Equivalence (RE) is one such approach, in which fiscal sustainability (FS) is defined in terms of neutrality of generational welfare by government fiscal policy. The present work is an attempt to discuss and analyze the FS of India in the context of RE. Different forms of empirically testable equations for testing RE are derived based on studies by Buiter and Tobin (1978), Kormendi (1983) and Kormendi and Meguire (1990). Based on availability of data, the empirical evidences are against the RE hypothesis, and hence the fiscal policy pursued during the study period (1974-2011) had been detrimental to generational welfare neutrality. One of the key aspects of FS is to ensure generational equity as reflected in the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003 in India. However, the empirical findings convey that fiscal policy had been unsustainable in the terms of generational equity in India.

Suggested Citation

  • Pradhan, Krishanu, 2015. "Ricardian approach to fiscal sustainability in India," Working Papers 335, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
    • Handle: RePEc:sch:wpaper:335
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    Cited by:

    1. Ranjan Kumar Mohanty & Sidheswar Panda, 2020. "How Does Public Debt Affect the Indian Macroeconomy? A Structural VAR Approach," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 14(3), pages 253-284, August.
    2. Mohanty, Ranjan Kumar & Panda, Sidheswar, 2019. "How Does Public Debt affect the Indian Macroeconomy? A Structural VAR Approach," Working Papers 19/250, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    3. Isabelle Joumard & Peter Hoeller & Jean-Marc Fournier & Hermes Morgavi, 2017. "Public debt in India: Moving towards a prudent level?," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1400, OECD Publishing.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fiscal policy; Government expenditures; Budget deficits;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • H62 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Deficit; Surplus
    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt

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