The quest for a fiscal rule: Italy, 1861–1998

Roberto Ricciuti

Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, 2008, vol. 2, issue 3, 259-274

Abstract: The Italian fiscal history is characterised by a number of fiscal consolidations. In this study, we characterise fiscal policy in terms of non-linear deterministic processes. We find that government spending and taxes can be described as being non-linear trend stationary processes instead of unit roots. A long run equilibrium relationship—a non-linear co-trend—does exist between the two series, fulfilling the intertemporal government budget constraint. We interpret this result as evidence of a long run fiscal rule that different policy makers have adopted, putting public finance in balance.

Keywords: Intertemporal government budget constraint; Non-linear trend stationarity; Non-linear co-trending (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E62 H62 N10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.springerlink.com/content/e17728v4129688 ... 4c3c259b1083eb3&pi=4 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to journal subscribers

Related works:
Working Paper: The quest for a fiscal rule: Italy, 1861-1998 (2007)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:afc:cliome:v:2:y:2008:i:3:p:259-274

Access Statistics for this article

Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History is currently edited by Claude Diebolt, Dora Costa and Jean-Luc Demeulemeester

More articles in Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History from Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().