Intergenerational Politics, Government Debt, and Economic Growth

This study presents a two-period overlapping-generations model featuring en- dogenous growth and intergenerational conflict over fiscal policy. In particular, we characterize a Markov-perfect political equilibrium of the voting game between gen- erations, and show the following results. First, population aging incentivizes the government to invest more in capital for future public spending, and thus produces a positive effect on economic growth. Second, when the government finances its spending by issuing bonds, an introduction of a balanced budget rule results in a higher growth rate. Third, to obtain a normative implication of the political equi- librium, we compare it to an allocation chosen by a benevolent planner who takes care of all future generations. Here, we show that the political equilibrium attains a lower growth rate than that in the planner's allocation.