A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation and Debt

Marco Battaglini () and Stephen Coate ()

No 12100, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper presents a dynamic political economy theory of public spending, taxation and debt. Policy choices are made by a legislature consisting of representatives elected by geographically-defined districts. The legislature can raise revenues via a distortionary income tax and by borrowing. These revenues can be used to finance a national public good and district-specific transfers (interpreted as pork-barrel spending). The value of the public good is stochastic, reflecting shocks such as wars or natural disasters. In equilibrium, policy-making cycles between two distinct regimes: %u201Cbusiness-as-usual%u201D in which legislators bargain over the allocation of pork, and %u201Cresponsible-policy-making%u201D in which policies maximize the collective good. Transitions between the two regimes are brought about by shocks in the value of the public good. In the long run, equilibrium tax rates are too high and too volatile, public good provision is too low and debt levels are too high. In some environments, a balanced budget requirement can improve citizen welfare.

JEL-codes: H6 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-pbe, nep-pol and nep-pub
Date: 2006-03
Note: PE POL
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w12100.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html.

Related works:
Working Paper: A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation and Debt (2007)
Working Paper: A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation and Debt (2006)
Working Paper: A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation and Debt (2006)
Working Paper: A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation and Debt (2007)
Journal Article: A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation, and Debt (2008)
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: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12100

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w12100
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc
Address: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by ().