IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ter/wpaper/00203.html

Which Slack Matters for Fiscal Multipliers? Evidence from Italian Aggregate Data

Author

Listed:
  • Elton Beqiraj
  • Milos Ciganovic
  • Giovanni Di Bartolomeo
  • Paolo D'Imperio
  • Cristian Tegami

Abstract

We estimate state-dependent government-spending multipliers for Italy using quarterly local projections over 1961-2019. The paper asks which notion of slack matters for fiscal transmission, distinguishing short-run GDP-growth regimes from persistent labour-market slack measured by the unemployment gap. Recession multipliers are large in point estimates, peaking around 1.4, but the recession-expansion difference is not statistically significant. By contrast, labour-market slack-state multipliers rise above one at medium horizons, and the slack-tight difference becomes significant from the two-year horizon onward. Robustness checks preserve the ranking of the state-specific multipliers, although inference depends on how slack is measured. The results suggest that Italian fiscal state dependence is identified more clearly through labour-market underutilisation than through GDP-growth regimes. More generally, "bad times" are not interchangeable empirical states: the measurement of slack is central for inference on fiscal multipliers.

Suggested Citation

  • Elton Beqiraj & Milos Ciganovic & Giovanni Di Bartolomeo & Paolo D'Imperio & Cristian Tegami, 2026. "Which Slack Matters for Fiscal Multipliers? Evidence from Italian Aggregate Data," CIMEO Working Paper Series 203, Centre for Investigation and Modelling of Experimental Observations (CIMEO).
    • Handle: RePEc:ter:wpaper:00203
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.dipecodir.it/wpcom/data/wp_no_203_2026.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benigno, Pierpaolo & Eggertsson, Gauti, 2024. "Revisiting the Phillips and Beveridge Curves: Insights from the 2020s Inflation Surge," CEPR Discussion Papers 19561, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    2. Colombo, Emilio & Furceri, Davide & Pizzuto, Pietro & Tirelli, Patrizio, 2024. "Public expenditure multipliers and informality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    3. Marco Bernardini & Gert Peersman, 2018. "Private debt overhang and the government spending multiplier: Evidence for the United States," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 485-508, June.
    4. James D. Hamilton, 2018. "Why You Should Never Use the Hodrick-Prescott Filter," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(5), pages 831-843, December.
    5. Michael T. Owyang & Valerie A. Ramey & Sarah Zubairy, 2013. "Are government spending multipliers greater during periods of slack? evidence from 20th century historical data," Working Papers 2013-004, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    6. Pierpaolo Benigno & Gauti B. Eggertsson, 2024. "Revisiting the Phillips and Beveridge Curves: Insights from the 2020s Inflation Surge," NBER Working Papers 33095, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Alan J. Auerbach & Yuriy Gorodnichenko, 2013. "Corrigendum: Measuring the Output Responses to Fiscal Policy," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 320-322, August.
    8. Pascal Michaillat, 2014. "A Theory of Countercyclical Government Multiplier," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 190-217, January.
    9. Lawrence Christiano & Martin Eichenbaum & Sergio Rebelo, 2011. "When Is the Government Spending Multiplier Large?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 119(1), pages 78-121.
    10. Valerie A. Ramey & Sarah Zubairy, 2018. "Government Spending Multipliers in Good Times and in Bad: Evidence from US Historical Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(2), pages 850-901.
    11. Olivier Blanchard & Roberto Perotti, 2002. "An Empirical Characterization of the Dynamic Effects of Changes in Government Spending and Taxes on Output," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(4), pages 1329-1368.
    12. Michael Woodford, 2011. "Simple Analytics of the Government Expenditure Multiplier," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 1-35, January.
    13. Michael T. Owyang & Valerie A. Ramey & Sarah Zubairy, 2013. "Are Government Spending Multipliers Greater during Periods of Slack? Evidence from Twentieth-Century Historical Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 129-134, May.
    14. Giovanni Caggiano & Efrem Castelnuovo & Valentina Colombo & Gabriela Nodari, 2015. "Estimating Fiscal Multipliers: News From A Non‐linear World," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(584), pages 746-776, May.
    15. Haroon Mumtaz & Laura Sunder‐Plassmann, 2021. "Nonlinear effects of government spending shocks in the USA: Evidence from state‐level data," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 86-97, January.
    16. Coppola, Gianluigi & Destefanis, Sergio & Di Serio, Mario & Fragetta, Matteo, 2024. "Fiscal multipliers in recession and expansion. An analysis for the Italian regions," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 538-556.
    17. Abiad (ADB), Abdul & Furceri (IMF and University of Palermo), Davide & Topalova (IMF), Petia, 2016. "The macroeconomic effects of public investment: Evidence from advanced economies," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 224-240.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Efrem Castelnuovo & Guay Lim, 2019. "What Do We Know About the Macroeconomic Effects of Fiscal Policy? A Brief Survey of the Literature on Fiscal Multipliers," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 52(1), pages 78-93, March.
    2. Coppola, Gianluigi & Destefanis, Sergio & Di Serio, Mario & Fragetta, Matteo, 2024. "Fiscal multipliers in recession and expansion. An analysis for the Italian regions," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 538-556.
    3. Mr. Tidiane Kinda & Andras Lengyel & Kaustubh Chahande, 2022. "Fiscal Multipliers During Pandemics," IMF Working Papers 2022/149, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Mathias Klein & Roland Winkler, 2021. "The government spending multiplier at the zero lower bound: International evidence from historical data," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(6), pages 744-759, September.
    5. Mario Alloza, 2014. "Is Fiscal Policy More Effective in Uncertain Times or During Recessions?," Discussion Papers 1631, Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM), revised Oct 2016.
    6. Mario Di Serio & Matteo Fragetta & Emanuel Gasteiger, 2020. "The Government Spending Multiplier at the Zero Lower Bound: Evidence from the United States," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(6), pages 1262-1294, December.
    7. Frangiamore, Francesco & Matarrese, Marco Maria, 2025. "Government spending multipliers and financial fragility in Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    8. Klein, Mathias & Polattimur, Hamza & Winkler, Roland, 2022. "Fiscal spending multipliers over the household leverage cycle," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    9. Alfred A. Haug & India Power, 2022. "Government Spending Multipliers in Times of Tight and Loose Monetary Policy in New Zealand," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 98(322), pages 249-270, September.
    10. Deleidi, Matteo & Iafrate, Francesca & Levrero, Enrico Sergio, 2020. "Public investment fiscal multipliers: An empirical assessment for European countries," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 354-365.
    11. Fernández Romero, Daniel, 2025. "The fiscal multiplier in presence of unconventional monetary policy: Evidence for 17 OECD countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    12. Keränen, Henri & Kuusi, Tero, 2016. "The EU’s Fiscal Targets and Their Economic Impact in Finland," ETLA Working Papers 33, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    13. Andrea Boitani & Salvatore Perdichizzi, 2018. "Public Expenditure Multipliers in recessions. Evidence from the Eurozone," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def068, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    14. Beau Soederhuizen & Rutger Teulings & Rob Luginbuhl, 2023. "Estimating the impact of the financial cycle on fiscal policy," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(6), pages 2669-2709, December.
    15. Marco Amendola & Marcelo C. Pereira, 2026. "Are fiscal multipliers state-dependent? Insights from an agent-based model," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 1-34, April.
    16. Amendola, Adalgiso & Di Serio, Mario & Fragetta, Matteo & Melina, Giovanni, 2020. "The euro-area government spending multiplier at the effective lower bound," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    17. Yifei Lyu & Eul Noh, 2022. "Cyclical variation in US government spending multipliers," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(2), pages 831-846, April.
    18. Dell'Erba, Salvatore & Koloskova, Ksenia & Poplawski-Ribeiro, Marcos, 2018. "Medium-term fiscal multipliers during protracted economic contractions," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 35-52.
    19. Valerie A. Ramey, 2019. "Ten Years after the Financial Crisis: What Have We Learned from the Renaissance in Fiscal Research?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 89-114, Spring.
    20. Papaioannou, Sotiris K., 2019. "The effects of fiscal policy on output: Does the business cycle matter?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 27-36.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General
    • E65 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Studies of Particular Policy Episodes

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ter:wpaper:00203. 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: Giovanni Di Bartolomeo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cmrosit.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.