Fiscal Policy and Public Debt Dynamics in Italy, 1861-2009

Alessandro Piergallini and Michele Postigliola ()

Rivista italiana degli economisti, 2012, issue 3, 417-440

Abstract: We examine the historical dynamics of government debt in post-unification Italy, from 1861to 2009. Unit root tests for the debt-GDP ratio are unable to reject either the non-stationarity or the stationarity null hypothesis. Controlling debt dynamics for fiscal feedback policies of the Barro-Bohn style, however, the debt-GDP ratio is found to be mean-reverting. Mean-reversion in the debt-GDP ratio is due not only to a nominal growth dividend, but also to a positive response of primary surpluses to variations in outstanding debt. There is indeed significant evidence that, over the history of Italy, fiscal policy makershave reacted to the accumulation of debt, taking corrective measures to rule out potential long-term sustainability problems.

Keywords: Fiscal Policy; Public Debt; Fiscal Sustainability. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.1427/38532 (application/pdf)
https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1427/38532 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
Working Paper: Fiscal Policy and Public Debt Dynamics in Italy, 1861-2009 (2012)
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:mul:jqat1f:doi:10.1427/38532:y:2012:i:3:p:417-440

Access Statistics for this article

Rivista italiana degli economisti is currently edited by Giuliano Conti

More articles in Rivista italiana degli economisti from Società editrice il Mulino
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().