Recurrent explosive behaviour of debt-to-GDP ratio

Bystrov, Victor and Mackewicz, Michał (2016): Recurrent explosive behaviour of debt-to-GDP ratio.

Abstract

In this paper the recurrent explosive behaviour of debt-to-GDP ratio is tested in three countries with a long fiscal record: Sweden, the UK and the US. The testing is based on the method developed by Phillips et al. (2015) which is new in this context. The method allows us to avoid the size distortion problem of the traditional tests of fiscal sustainability and makes it possible to examine potential unsustainability as a transitory rather than permanent phenomenon. It has been demonstrated that in the economies analyzed, long periods of fiscal sustainability were interrupted by relatively short periods when the debt-to-GDP ratio had explosive dynamics.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Public debt, Sustainability, Unit root tests, Explosiveness
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C1 - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General > C12 - Hypothesis Testing: General; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C2 - Single Equation Models ; Single Variables > C22 - Time-Series Models ; Dynamic Quantile Regressions ; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models ; Diffusion Processes; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E6 - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook > E62 - Fiscal Policy; H - Public Economics > H6 - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt > H63 - Debt ; Debt Management ; Sovereign Debt

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