With this paper, our objective is to empirically study public debt sustainability by estimating a fiscal reaction function where the primary balance relative to GDP is assumed to be a function of the public debt to GDP ratio of the previous year and of other macroeconomic variables. In...

In this paper we test whether German public debt has been sustainable by resorting to a test proposed by Bohn (1998). We apply non-parametric and semi-parametric regressions with time depending coefficients. This test shows that the mean of the coefficient relevant for sustainability has been...

We analyze effects of public debt on economic growth in a basic endogenous growth model with persistent unemployment due to wages rigidities. We show that there exists either a unique balanced growth path or there are two balanced growth paths depending on structural parameters and on the...

In this paper we analyze a descriptive endogenous growth model with public debt. The government can run into debt, but, the primary surplus is a positive function of the debt to GDP ratio such that the debt ratio becomes a mean-reverting process. We show that a balanced budget scenario yields a...

This paper studies the relationship between public debt and economic growth for selected emerging markets performing panel data estimations. Several regressor variables are included, but the main focus is on public debt. The results reveal a significant positive correlation between public debt...

We analyze how different budgetary rules affect the stability of an economy in a basic endogenous growth model with public debt and a state-dependent consumption tax rate. We show that a discretionary policy implies that the government violates its inter-temporal budget constraint along a...

In this paper we analyze an endogeneous growth model with human capital that results from public educational spending. We allow for public debt and analyze three different debt policies: a balanced government budget, a slight deficit policy where debt grows but less than GDP, and a strong...

This paper starts from the observation that the primary surplus of the government must be financed out of a country's GDP. Assuming that the interest rate on public debt exceeds the growth rate of GDP, it is demonstrated that a sustainable debt policy is not compatible with a rising public debt...