Procyclical and Countercyclical Fiscal Multipliers: Evidence from OECD Countries

Daniel Riera-Crichton, Carlos Vegh and Guillermo Vuletin

No 20533, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Using non-linear methods, we argue that existing estimates of government spending multipliers in expansion and recession may yield biased results by ignoring whether government spending is increasing or decreasing. In the case of OECD countries, the problem originates in the fact that, contrary to one’s priors, it is not always the case that government spending is going up in recessions (i.e., acting countercyclically). In almost as many cases, government spending is actually going down (i.e., acting procyclically). Since the economy does not respond symmetrically to government spending increases or decreases, the “true” long-run multiplier for bad times (and government spending going up) turns out to be 2.3 compared to 1.3 if we just distinguish between recession and expansion. In extreme recessions, the long-run multiplier reaches 3.1.

JEL-codes: E62 F41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-mac, nep-opm and nep-pbe
Note: IFM
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Published as Riera-Crichton, Daniel & Vegh, Carlos A. & Vuletin, Guillermo, 2015. "Procyclical and countercyclical fiscal multipliers: Evidence from OECD countries," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 15-31.

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Journal Article: Procyclical and countercyclical fiscal multipliers: Evidence from OECD countries (2015)
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