The fiscal costs of debt-financed government spending
Author
Faculty Advisor
Date
2022
Keywords
debt-financed spending, government spending
Abstract (summary)
In this paper, we show that the notion that debt-financed spending has a low fiscal cost is misleading. We review econometric studies of OECD countries that show that the growth rate declines, interest rates increase, and the r - g differential increases as a country’s public debt ratio increases. We also estimate a simple regression model of the r – g gap in Canada based on the annual data from 1991 to 2019. Consistent with the findings of other more elaborate econometric studies, the regression results indicate that the r – g gap in Canada is affected by international financial and economic conditions, as reflected by the r – g gap in the United States, but also by the public debt to GDP ratio. In particular, a one percentage point increase in the debt to GDP ratio of the federal, provincial, territorial, and local government sector is associated with a 6.7 basis point increase in the Canadian r – g gap.
Publication Information
Dahlby, B., Ferede, E., and Fuss, J. (2022). The Fiscal Costs of Debt-Financed Government Spending. The Fraser Institute. https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/fiscal-costs-of-debt-financed-government-spending
DOI
Notes
Item Type
Report
Language
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)
