Sustainability of High Public Debt: What the Historical Record Shows

Albrecht Ritschl

No 1357, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Proposals for reducing high public debt are sometimes viewed with scepticism, both because of adverse consequences for growth and political economy considerations. This paper looks into the debt history of Britain, Germany and France, to gain more insights into why national debt was accumulated and how it was reduced. The historical evidence studied here leaves only a limited role for public choice interpretations, as most of the historical debt record was dominated by international conflict. Whichever strategy towards reducing the debt burden was adopted, there seem to be no visible effects on long-term growth performance.

Keywords: Debt Retirement; Default; Growth; Reparations; War Finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E6 H6 N1 N4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996-02
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

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