This paper draws on a debate between Robert Skidelsky and Paul Krugman on the expansionary austerity hypothesis as a motivation to build a demand-driven agent-based model. The model features contagion across firms to explore whether fiscal consolidations may become expansionary due to a positive...

The study sheds light on the stabilizing role of government budget. It finds that in Bulgaria both taxes and government spending are negatively related to the real growth rate. This leads to the conclusion that budgetary expenditure influence output in a non-Keynesian fashion. The size of...