Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/30717 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 2926
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We apply non-linear error-correction models to the empirical testing of the sustainability of the government's intertemporal budget constraint. Our empirical analysis, based on Italy, shows that the Italian government is meeting its intertemporal budget constraint, in spite of the high levels of public debt. Nevertheless, the burden of correcting budgetary disequilibria is entirely carried out by changes in the average tax rate, with a weakly exogenous government spending, possibly determined by the political process. We document some rigidities of the tax instrument, in terms of downward inflexibility of the average tax rate, not only with respect to its long-run level, but also during periods of decreasing economic growth. Further, we provide some evidence in favour of a non-linear adjustment towards a sustainable long-run equilibrium, as the average tax rate adjusts faster the farther away it is from the equilibrium.
Subjects: 
intertemporal budget constraint
sustainability
non-linear error-correction
fiscal reaction function
JEL: 
C32
C51
C52
H20
H50
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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