Now or Later? The Political Economy of Public Investment in Democracies

This paper explores the impact of political and institutional variables on public investment. Working with a sample of 80 presidential and parliamentary democracies between 1975 and 2012, we find that the rate of growth of public investment is higher at the beginning of electoral cycles and decelera...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gupta, Sanjeev
Other Authors: Liu, Estelle, Mulas-Granados, Carlos
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. International Monetary Fund 2015
Series:IMF Working Papers
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: International Monetary Fund - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
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245 0 0 |a Now or Later? The Political Economy of Public Investment in Democracies  |c Sanjeev Gupta, Estelle Liu, Carlos Mulas-Granados 
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300 |a 38 pages 
651 4 |a United States 
653 |a Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: Other 
653 |a National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: Infrastructures 
653 |a Public debt 
653 |a Public investment spending 
653 |a Budget Systems 
653 |a Fiscal rules 
653 |a Public finance & taxation 
653 |a Debt Management 
653 |a Debts, Public 
653 |a Fiscal Policy 
653 |a Debt 
653 |a Fiscal policy 
653 |a Other Public Investment and Capital Stock 
653 |a National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: General 
653 |a Expenditure 
653 |a Sovereign Debt 
653 |a Expenditures, Public 
653 |a Current spending 
653 |a Macroeconomics 
653 |a Public investments 
653 |a National Budget 
653 |a Public Finance 
700 1 |a Liu, Estelle 
700 1 |a Mulas-Granados, Carlos 
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520 |a This paper explores the impact of political and institutional variables on public investment. Working with a sample of 80 presidential and parliamentary democracies between 1975 and 2012, we find that the rate of growth of public investment is higher at the beginning of electoral cycles and decelerates thereafter. The peak in public investment growth occurs between 21 and 25 months before elections. Cabinet ideology and government fragmentation influence the size of investment booms. More parties in government are associated with smaller increases in public investment while left-wing cabinets are associated with higher sustained increases in investment. Stronger institutions help attenuate the impact of elections on investment, but available information is insufficient to draw definitive conclusions