Impact of Public Debt, Deficit and Debt Financing on Private Investment in a Large Country: Evidence from the United States

Main Article Content

Amir Kia
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6388-1453

Abstract

This paper analyses the direct impact of fiscal variables on private investment. The current literature ignores one or more fiscal variables and, in many cases, the foreign financing of debt. In this paper, an aggregate investment function for an economy in which firms incur adjustment costs in their investment process is developed. The developed model incorporates the direct impact of government expenditure, public debt and investment, deficits and foreign-financed debt on private investment. The model is tested on US data. It is found that public investment does not have any impact on private investment, but government expenditure, deficit, debt and foreign-financed debt crowd out private investment over the long run. However, deficit crowds in the private investment over the short run.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Kia, A. (2020) “Impact of Public Debt, Deficit and Debt Financing on Private Investment in a Large Country: Evidence from the United States”, World Journal of Applied Economics, 6(2), pp. 139-161. doi: 10.22440/wjae.6.2.3.
Section
Research Articles

References

Abiad, A., Furceri, D., & Topalova, P. (2016). The Macroeconomic Effects of Public Investment: Evidence from Advanced Economies. Journal of Macroeconomics, 224–240. doi:10.1016/j.jmacro.2016.07.005

Afonso, A., & St. Aubyn, M. (2009). Macroeconomic Rates of Return of Public and Private Investment: Crowding-In and Crowding-Out Effects. The Manchester School, 77(Supplement), 21–39. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9957.2009.02117.x

Ahmed, S. (1986). Railway Reforms: Do They Influence Operating Efficiency? Journal of Monetary Economics, 17, 197–224. doi:10.1016/0304-3932(86)90028-0

Alesina, A., Ardagna, S., Perotti, R., & Schiantarelli, F. (2002). Fiscal Policy, Profits, and Investment. American Economic Review, 92, 571–589. doi:10.1257/00028280260136255

Allen, R. G. (1967). Macro-Economic Theory. London, The Macmillan Press Ltd.

Ardagna, S., Caselli, F., & Lane, T. (2007). Fiscal Discipline and the Cost of Public Debt Service: Some Estimates for OECD Countries. The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, 7, 1-33. doi:10.2202/1935-1690.1417

Aschauer, D. A. (1989). Does Public Capital Crowd Out Private Capital? Journal of Monetary Economic, 24, 171–188. doi:10.1016/0304-3932(89)90002-0

Azzimonti, M., De Francisco, E., & Quadrini, V. (2014). Financial Globalization, Inequality, and the Rising Public Debt. American Economic Review, 104, 2267–2302. doi:10.1257/aer.104.8.2267

Bai, J., & Perron, P. (2003). Computation and Analysis of Multiple Structural Change Models. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 18, 1–22. doi:10.1002/jae.659

Barro, R. J. (1981). Output Effects of Government Purchases. Journal of Political Economy, 89, 1086–1121. doi:10.1086/261024

Barth, J. R., Iden, G., Russek, F. S., & Wohar, M. (1991). The Effects of Federal Budget Deficits on Interest Rates and the Composition of Domestic Output. In R. G. Penner (Ed.), The Great Fiscal Experiment (pp. 71–141). The Urban Institute Press: Washington, DC.

Bernanke, B. S. (1983). Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Cyclical Investment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 98, 85–106. doi:10.2307/1885568

Blackley, P. R. (2014). New Estimates of Direct Crowding out (or in) of Investment and of a Peace Dividend for the U.S. Economy. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 37, 67–90. doi:10.2753/PKE0160-3477370106

Brechling, F. (1975). Investment and Employment Decisions. Manchester, Manchester University Press.

Cheung, Y.-W., & Lai, K. S. (1993). Finite Sample Sizes of Johansen's Likelihood Ratio Tests for Cointegration. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 55, 313–328. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0084.1993.mp55003003.x

Chirinko, R. S., & Schaller, H. (1996). Bubbles, Fundamentals, and Investment: A Multiple Equation Testing Strategy. Journal of Monetary Economics, 38, 47–76. doi:10.1016/0304-3932(96)01267-6

Chow, G. C., & Lin, A. I. (1971). Best Linear Unbiased Interpolation, Distribution, and Extrapolation of Time Series by Related Series. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 53, 372–375. doi:10.2307/1928739

Claeys, P., Moreno, R., & Suriñach, J. (2012). Debt, Interest Rates, and Integration of Financial Markets. Economic Modelling, 29, 48–59. doi:10.1016/j.econmod.2011.05.009

Cogan, J. F., Cwik, T., Taylor, J. B., & Wieland, V. (2010). New Keynesian versus Old Keynesian Government Spending Multipliers. Journal of Economic Dynamics & Control, 34, 281–295. doi:10.1016/j.jedc.2010.01.010

Costrell, R. M. (1983). Profitability and Aggregate Investment under Demand Uncertainty. The Economic Journal, 93, 166–181. doi:10.2307/2232171

Desroches, B., & Francis, M. (2010). World Real Interest Rates: A Global Savings and Investment Perspective. Applied Economics, 42, 2801–2816. doi:10.1080/00036840801964690

Eisner, R., & Strotz, R. H. (1963). Determinants of Business Investment. In D. B. et al. (Ed.), Impacts of Monetary Policy (a series of research studies for the Commission on money and credit ed., pp. 59–338). Prentice-Hall.

Elmendorf, D., & Mankiw, N. G. (1999). Government Debt. In J. Taylor, & M. Woodford (Eds.), Handbook of Macroeconomics (pp. 1615–1669). Elsevier Science: Amsterdam.

Engen, E., & Hubbard, G. (2005). Federal Government Debt and Interest Rates. In M. Gertler, & K. Rogoff (Eds.), NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2004 (pp. 83–160). MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.

Engle, R. F. (1982). Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity with Estimates of the Variance of United Kingdom Inflation. Econometrica, 50, 987–1007. doi:10.2307/1912773

Forni, L., Monteforte, L., & Sessa, L. (2009). The General Equilibrium Effects of Fiscal Policy: Estimates for the Euro Area. Journal of Public Economics, 93, 559–585. doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2008.09.010

Gale, W. G., & Orszag, P. R. (2004). Budget Deficits, National Saving, and Interest Rates. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 35, 101–210. doi:10.1353/eca.2005.0007

Godfrey, L. G. (1978). Testing Against General Autoregressive and Moving Average Error Models when the Regressors Include Lagged Dependent Variables. Econometrica, 46, 1293–1301. doi:10.2307/1913829

Godfrey, L. G. (1988). Misspecification Test in Econometrics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gould, J. P. (1968). Adjustment Costs in the Theory of Investment of the Firm. Review of Economic Studies, 35, 47–55. doi:10.2307/2974406

Granger, C. W. (1986). Developments in the Study of Cointegrated Economic Variables. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 48, 213–218. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0084.1986.mp48003002.x

Hansen, B. E. (1992). Efficient Estimation and Testing of Cointegrating Vectors in the Presence of Deterministic Trends. Journal of Econometrics, 53, 87–121. doi:10.1016/0304-4076(92)90081-2

Hansen, H., & Juselius, K. (1995). CATS in RATS Cointegration Analysis of Time Series. Evanston, IL: Estima.

Hercowitz, Z. (1986). The Real Interest Rate and Aggregate Supply. Journal of Monetary Economics, 18, 121–145. doi:10.1016/0304-3932(86)90072-3

Jarque, C. M., & Bera, A. K. (1987). A Test for Normality of Observations and Regression Residuals. International Statistical Review, 55, 167–172. doi:10.2307/1403192

Johansen, S. (1995). Identifying Restrictions of Linear Equations With Applications to Simulations Equations and Cointegration. Journal of Econometrics, 69, 111–32. doi:10.1016/0304-4076(94)01664-L

Johansen, S. (1995). Likelihood-Based Inference in Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive Models. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Johansen, S. (2000). A Bartlett Correction Factor for Test on the Cointegration Relations. Econometric Theory, 16, 740–78. doi:10.1017/S0266466600165065

Johansen, S. (2002). A Small Sample Correction of the Test of Cointegrating Rank in the Vector Autoregressive Model. Econometrica, 70, 1929–1961. doi:10.1111/1468-0262.00358

Johansen, S., & Juselius, K. (1992). Testing Structural Hypotheses in a Multivariate Cointegration Analysis of the PPP and the UIP for UK. Journal of Econometrics, 53, 211–244. doi:10.1016/0304-4076(92)90086-7

Kameda, K. (2014). Budget Deficits, Government Debt, and Long-term Interest Rates in Japan. Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 32, 105–124. doi:10.1016/j.jjie.2014.02.001

Laubach, T. (2009). New Evidence on the Interest Rate Effects of Budget Deficits and Debt. Journal of the European Economic Association, 7, 858–885. doi:10.1162/JEEA.2009.7.4.858

Lee, J., & Strazicich, M. C. (2001). Break Point Estimation and Spurious Rejections with Endogenous Unit Root Tests. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 63, 535–558. doi:10.1111/1468-0084.00234

Lee, J., & Strazicich, M. C. (2003). Minimum Lagrange Multiplier Unit Root Test with Two Structural Breaks. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 85, 1082–1089. doi:10.1162/003465303772815961

Leeper, E. M., Plante, M., & Traum, N. (2010). Dynamics of Fiscal Financing in the United States. Journal of Econometrics, 156, 304–321. doi:10.1016/j.jeconom.2009.11.001

Link, S. B. (2006). Do Government Purchases Crowd out Investment? International Review of Economics, 53, 323–333. doi:10.1007/BF03029784

Lucas, R. E. (1967). Adjustment Costs and the Theory of Supply. The Journal of Political Economy, 75, 321–334. doi:10.1086/259289

Phillips, P. C., & Hansen, B. E. (1990). Statistical Inference in Instrumental Variables Regression with I(1) Processes. The Review of Economic Studies, 57, 99–125. doi:10.2307/2297545

Ramey, V. A. (2019). Ten Years after the Financial Crisis: What Have We Learned from the Renaissance in Fiscal Research? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 33, 89–114. doi:10.1257/jep.33.2.89

Ramsey, J. B. (1969). Tests for Specification Errors in Classical Linear Least-Squares Regression Analysis. Journal of Royal Statistical Society, Series B, 31, 350–371. doi:10.1111/j.2517-6161.1969.tb00796.x

Ratto, M., Roeger, W., & Veld, J. I. (2009). QUEST III: An Estimated Open-Economy DSGE Model of the Euro Area with Fiscal and Monetary Policy. Econometric Modelling, 26, 222–233. doi:10.1016/j.econmod.2008.06.014

Rothschild, M. (1971). On the Cost of Adjustment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 85, 605–622. doi:10.2307/1882270

Salotti, S., & Trecroci, C. (2016). The Impact of Government Debt, Expenditure and Taxes on Aggregate Investment and Productivity Growth. Economica, 83, 356–384. doi:10.1111/ecca.12175

Scarth, W. M. (1984). Adjustment Costs and Aggregate Supply Theory. Canadian Journal of Economics, 17, 847–854. doi:10.2307/135077

Söderström, H. T. (1976). Production and Investment Under Costs of Adjustment A Survey. Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, 36, 369–388. doi:10.1007/BF01287519

Traum, N., & Yang, S.-C. S. (2015). When Does Government Debt Crowd Out Investment? Journal of Applied Econometrics, 30, 24–45. doi:10.1002/jae.2356

Treadway, A. B. (1970). Adjustment Costs and Variable Inputs in the Theory of the Competitive Firm. Journal of Economic Theory, 2, 329–347. doi:10.1016/0022-0531(70)90017-7

Uhlig, H. (2010). Some Fiscal Calculus. American Economic Review, 100, 30–34. doi:10.1257/aer.100.2.30

White, H. (1980). A Heteroskedasticity Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity. Econometrica, 48, 817–837. doi:10.2307/1912934

Wisley, T. O., & Johnson, S. R. (1985). An Evaluation of Alternative Investment Hypotheses using Non-Nested Tests. Southern Economic Journal, 52, 422-430. doi:10.2307/1059628

Zivot, E., & Andrews, D. W. (1992). Further Evidence on the Great Crash, the Oil Price Shock, and the Unit-Root Hypothesis. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 10, 3851–74. doi:10.2307/1391541