Do austerity policies reduce public debt? An analysis on twelve Eurozone countries

Giorgio Liotti (), Marco Musella () and Ferdinando Ofria ()
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Giorgio Liotti: University of Messina
Marco Musella: University of Naples Federico II
Ferdinando Ofria: University of Messina

Economics of Governance, 2025, vol. 26, issue 2, No 1, 139-162

Abstract: Abstract Mainstream economic theory posits that high public debt levels create fragile conditions within the Eurozone by undermining economic growth, forcing countries to borrow on financial markets through the issuance of government bonds, and compromising the smooth functioning of the economic system. The Washington Consensus advocates fiscal austerity as a strategy to reduce public debt. This paper assesses whether the implementation of such austerity policies indeed reduces public debt. Using data on the change in cyclically adjusted primary balance in twelve Eurozone countries between 1999 and 2019 as a proxy for austerity measures, the empirical results, obtained using a Panel Dynamic OLS (PDOLS), reject the hypothesis of an inverse relationship between changes in the cyclically adjusted primary balance and the level of public debt. Conversely, we find that the adoption of fiscal austerity measures is associated with an increase in the level of public debt.

Keywords: Austerity policies; Public debt; Eurozone countries; Panel data analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10101-025-00325-3

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