When the White House Changes Party, Do Economists Change Their Tune on Budget Deficits?

Brett Barkley

Econ Journal Watch, 2010, vol. 7, issue 2, 119-156

Abstract: Large budget deficits represent a burden on the future, and debt accumulation eventually poses great problems. Economists writing for the public can either highlight such truths, neglect the issue, or try to allay worries or excuse or justify large budget deficits (as anti-recession policy, for example). Economists affiliated or aligned with one of the parties may be suspected of changing their positions on budget deficits to serve their favored party or win favor with its constituency. This paper investigates selected economists, to see whether their tune changes when the party holding the White House changes. Six economists are found to change their tune—Paul Krugman in a significant way, Alan Blinder in a moderate way, and Martin Feldstein, Murray Weidenbaum, Paul Samuelson, and Robert Solow in a minor way—while eleven are found to be fairly consistent.

Keywords: budget deficits; economists; bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 A13 E60 E62 H60 H62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ejw:journl:v:7:y:2010:i:2:p:119-156

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