The International Effects of Government Spending Composition

January 1, 2005

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Giovanni Ganelli. The International Effects of Government Spending Composition, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2005) accessed November 21, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

This paper helps resolve a paradox in the literature, noticed by Alesina and Perotti (1995), which is that, although government employment is an important component of public spending, the debate on the effects of fiscal policy focuses almost exclusively on shocks to non-wage government consumption. We incorporate the distinction between spending for government employment and spending for non-wage government consumption in a "new open economy macroeconomics" model. Our results show that a permanent reduction in public employment in one country reduces relative private consumption and appreciates the domestic exchange rate if it is matched by a reduction in taxes. When the reduction in public employment is used to finance increased non-wage government consumption, the macroeconomic effects results are ambiguous, and are affected by the initial level of the public wage bill.

Subject: Consumption, Expenditure, Government consumption, Private consumption, Public employment

Keywords: WP

Publication Details

Pages:

18
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2005/004
Stock No:

WPIEA2005004
ISBN:

9781451860238
ISSN:

1018-5941

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