Cyclically neutral generational accounting

Holger Bonin (), Concepció Patxot and Guadalupe Souto

No 13-099, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: This paper introduces a methodological innovation into Generational Accounting. By incorporating cyclically-adjusted balances into the forward-looking budget projections underlying the concept we isolate pure policy effects, which render comparisons of the fiscal sustainability indicators obtained across time and countries truly meaningful. We also show that a demographic effect and a debt effect may bias fiscal sustainability measures over time, and establish a routine to control for these effects in the generational accounting framework. An empirical application for Spain illustrates that our proposed decomposition of indicators is empirically relevant. Standard generational accounting suggests that fiscal sustainability in Spain improved substantially in preparing for EMU. However, calculation of the pure policy effects reveals that this has not been the case.

Keywords: Fiscal Sustainability; Demographic Ageing; Cyclically-Adjusted Budget Balance; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E62 H55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age
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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/88135/1/772112142.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Cyclically‐Neutral Generational Accounting (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13099

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