Fiscal Adjustments in OECD Countries Composition and Macroeconomic Effects

This paper studies how the composition of fiscal adjustments influences their likelihood of 'success', defined as a long lasting deficit reduction, and their macroeconomic consequences. We find that fiscal adjustments which rely primarily on spending cuts on transfers and the government wa...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Alesina, Alberto
Other Authors: Perotti, Roberto
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. International Monetary Fund 1996
Series:IMF Working Papers
Online Access:
Collection: International Monetary Fund - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 01500nmm a2200241 u 4500
001 EB000925187
003 EBX01000000000000000718783
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 150128 ||| eng
020 |a 9781451960433 
100 1 |a Alesina, Alberto 
245 0 0 |a Fiscal Adjustments in OECD Countries  |b Composition and Macroeconomic Effects  |c Alberto Alesina, Roberto Perotti 
260 |a Washington, D.C.  |b International Monetary Fund  |c 1996 
300 |a 52 pages 
700 1 |a Perotti, Roberto 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b IMF  |a International Monetary Fund 
490 0 |a IMF Working Papers 
028 5 0 |a 10.5089/9781451960433.001 
856 4 0 |u http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/1996/070/001.1996.issue-070-en.xml  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a This paper studies how the composition of fiscal adjustments influences their likelihood of 'success', defined as a long lasting deficit reduction, and their macroeconomic consequences. We find that fiscal adjustments which rely primarily on spending cuts on transfers and the government wage bill have a better chance of being successful and are expansionary. On the contrary fiscal adjustments which rely primarily on tax increases and cuts in public investment tend not to last and are contractionary. We discuss alterative explanations for these findings by studying both a full sample of OECD countries and by focusing on three case studies: Denmark, Ireland and Italy