The political economy of fiscal deficits and government production

B-Tier
Journal: European Economic Review
Year: 2013
Volume: 58
Issue: C
Pages: 81-94

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This paper studies how disagreement over which goods government should provide affects resource allocation in the public sector. An incumbent combines pre-determined capital with labor to produce different goods in the current period, and accumulates physical and financial capital for future production. Capital-labor complementarity determines how anticipated political turnover shapes governments' choice between saving in physical capital or financial assets. Turnover tends to render the stock of physical capital for public production too low and inefficiently combined with labor. The main cost of political turnover is production inefficiency in the public sector, not a suboptimal savings level.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:eecrev:v:58:y:2013:i:c:p:81-94
Journal Field
General
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-26