Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T05:15:23.728Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Government investment fiscal multipliers: evidence from Euro-area countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2021

Matteo Deleidi*
Affiliation:
Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London, London, UK Department of Statistical Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Francesca Iafrate
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Enrico Sergio Levrero
Affiliation:
Roma Tre University, Department of Economics, Rome, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: m.deleidi@ucl.ac.uk

Abstract

This paper aims to estimate the government investment fiscal multipliers in select European countries for the period 1970–2016. To do this, we combine Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) modeling with the Local Projections (LP) approach. We estimate models by also controlling for fiscal foresight, excluding the postcrisis period and distinguishing between Northern and Southern countries. Our findings suggest that an increase in government investment generates a “Keynesian effect” by engendering positive and permanent effects on the GDP level, even when government expenditure expectations are considered. Fiscal multipliers are close to 1 on impact and increase in the years after the implementation of a discretionary fiscal policy.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abiad, A., Furceri, D. and Topalova, P. (2016) The macroeconomic effects of public investment: Evidence from advanced economies. Journal of Macroeconomics 50, 224240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alesina, A., Favero, C. and Giavazzi, F. (2015) The output effect of fiscal consolidation plans. Journal of International Economics 96, 1942.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Auerbach, A. J. and Gorodnichenko, Y. (2012) Measuring the output responses to fiscal policy. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 4(2), 127.Google Scholar
Auerbach, A. J. and Gorodnichenko, Y. (2013) Fiscal multipliers in recession and expansion. In: Alesina, A. and Giavazzi, F. (eds.), Fiscal Policy After the Financial Crisis, pp. 6398. University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Auerbach, A. J. and Gorodnichenko, Y. (2017) Fiscal stimulus and fiscal sustainability. NBER Working Paper No. 23789, National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bachmann, R. and Sims, E. R. (2012) Confidence and the transmission of government spending shocks. Journal of Monetary Economics 59(3), 235249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batini, N., Eyraud, L. and Weber, A. (2014) A simple method to compute fiscal multipliers. IMF Working Paper No. 14–93, International Monetary Fund.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baxter, M. and King, R. G. (1993) Fiscal policy in general equilibrium. The American Economic Review 83(3), 315334.Google Scholar
Ben Zeev, N. and Pappa, E. (2017) Chronicle of a war foretold: The macroeconomic effects of anticipated defence spending shocks. The Economic Journal 127(603), 15681597.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beetsma, R. and Giuliodori, M. (2011) The effects of government purchases shocks: review and estimates for the EU. The Economic Journal 121(550), F4F32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beetsma, R., Giuliodori, M. and Klaassen, F. (2008) The effects of public spending shocks on trade balances and budget deficits in the European Union. Journal of the European Economic Association 6(2–3), 414423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beetsma, R., Giuliodori, M. and Klaassen, F. (2009) Temporal aggregation and SVAR identification, with an application to fiscal policy. Economics Letters 105(3), 253255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bénétrix, A. S. and Lane, P. R. (2010) Fiscal shocks and the sectoral composition of output. Open Economies Review 21(3), 335350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bilbiie, F. O., Meier, A. and Müller, G. J. (2008) What accounts for the changes in US fiscal policy transmission? Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 40(7), 14391470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanchard, O. J. and Leigh, D. (2013) Growth forecast errors and fiscal multipliers. American Economic Review 103(3), 117120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanchard, O. and Perotti, R. (2002) An empirical characterization of the dynamic effects of changes in government spending and taxes on output. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 117(4), 13291368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boehm, C. E. (2020) Government consumption and investment: Does the composition of purchases affect the multiplier? Journal of Monetary Economics 115, 8093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boitani, A. and Perdichizzi, S. (2018) Public expenditure multipliers in recessions: Evidence from the Eurozone. Working Paper No. 68, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore-Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza.Google Scholar
Bonam, D., De Haan, J. and Soederhuizen, B. (2020) The effects of fiscal policy at the effective lower bound. Macroeconomic Dynamics, 137, doi: 10.1017/S1365100520000097.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouakez, H., Guillard, M. and Roulleau-Pasdeloup, J. (2017) Public investment, time to build, and the zero lower bound. Review of Economic Dynamics 23, 6079.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burriel, P., de Castro, F., Garrote, D., Gordo, E., Paredes, J. and Pérez, J. J. (2010) Fiscal policy shocks in the euro area and the US: an empirical assessment. Fiscal Studies 31(2), 251285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caggiano, G., Castelnuovo, E., Colombo, V. and Nodari, G. (2015) Estimating fiscal multipliers: News from a non-linear world. The Economic Journal 125(584), 746776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldara, D. and Kamps, C. (2008) What are the effects of fiscal policy shocks? A VAR-based comparative analysis. ECB Working Paper Series No. 877, European Central Bank.Google Scholar
Caldara, D. and Kamps, C. (2017) The analytics of SVARs: a unified framework to measure fiscal multipliers. The Review of Economic Studies 84(3), 10151040.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castelnuovo, E. and Lim, G. (2019) What do we know about the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy? A brief survey of the literature on fiscal multipliers. Australian Economic Review 52(1), 7893.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavallo, M. (2005) Government employment expenditure and the effects of fiscal policy shocks. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Working Paper 2005–2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christiano, L., Eichenbaum, M. and Rebelo, S. (2011) When is the government spending multiplier large? Journal of Political Economy 119(1), 78121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cimadomo, J. and Bénassy-Quéré, A. (2012) Changing patterns of fiscal policy multipliers in Germany, the UK and the US. Journal of Macroeconomics 34(3), 845873.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
David, A. C. (2017) Fiscal Policy Effectiveness in a Small Open Economy: Estimates of Tax and Spending Multipliers in Paraguay. IMF Working Paper 17–63, International Monetary Fund.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deleidi, M. (2021) Quantifying multipliers in Italy: Does fiscal policy composition matter? Oxford Economic Papers. doi: 10.1093/oep/gpab028.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deleidi, M., Iafrate, F. and Levrero, E. S. (2020) Public investment fiscal multipliers: An empirical assessment for European countries. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics 52, 354365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deleidi, M., Romaniello, D. and Tosi, F. (2021) Quantifying fiscal multipliers in Italy: A Panel SVAR analysis using regional data. Papers in Regional Science. doi: 10.1111/pirs.12620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driscoll, J. C. and Kraay, A. C.. 1998. Consistent covariance matrix estimation with spatially dependent panel data. Review of Economics and Statistics 80, 549560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumitrescu, E.-I. and Hurlin, C. (2012) Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels. Economic Modelling 29(4), 14501460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edelberg, W., Eichenbaum, M. and Fisher, J. D. M. (1999) Understanding the effects of a shock to government purchases. Review of Economic Dynamics 2(1), 166206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eggertsson, G. B. (2011) What Fiscal Policy is Effective at Zero Interest Rates? NBER Macroeconomics Annual, Vol. 25. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 59112.Google Scholar
Eichenbaum, M. and Fisher, J. (2004) Fiscal Policy in the Aftermath of 9/11. NBER Working Paper No. 10430, National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellahie, A. and Ricco, G. (2017) Government purchases reloaded: Informational insufficiency and heterogeneity in fiscal VARs. Journal of Monetary Economics 90, 1327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Commission. (2014) An Investment Plan for Europe.Google Scholar
Farhi, E. and Werning, I. (2016) Fiscal multipliers: Liquidity traps and currency unions. In: Taylor, J. B. and Uhlig, H. (eds.), Handbook of Macroeconomics. Vol. 2, pp. 2417–2492, Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fatás, A. and Mihov, I. (2001) The effects of fiscal policy on consumption and employment: theory and evidence. CEPR Discussion Papers No.2760.Google Scholar
Fatás, A. and Summers, L. H. (2018) The permanent effects of fiscal consolidations. Journal of International Economics 112, 238250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fazzari, S. M., Morley, J. and Panovska, I. (2015) State-dependent effects of fiscal policy. Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics 19(3), 285315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernández-Villaverde, J., Mandelman, F., Yu, Y. and Zanetti, F. (2019) Search complementarities, aggregate fluctuations, and fiscal policy. NBER Working Paper No. 26210, National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furceri, D. and Mourougane, A. (2010) The effects of fiscal policy on output: A DSGE analysis. OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 770.Google Scholar
Galí, J., López-Salido, J. D. and Vallés, J. (2007) Understanding the effects of government spending on consumption. Journal of the European Economic Association 5(1), 227270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gechert, S. (2015) What fiscal policy is most effective? A meta-regression analysis. Oxford Economic Papers 67(3), 553580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gechert, S. and Rannenberg, A. (2018) Which fiscal multipliers are regime dependent? A meta regression analysis. Journal of Economic Surveys 32(4), 11601182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghassibe, M. and Zanetti, F. (2019) State Dependence of Fiscal Multipliers: The Source of Fluctuations Matters. Mimeo: University of Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, R. E. (2009) By how much does GDP rise if the government buys more output? NBER Working Paper No. 15496, National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ilzetzki, E., Mendoza, E. G. and Végh, C. A. (2013) How big (small?) are fiscal multipliers? Journal of Monetary Economics 60(2), 239254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Monetary Fund (2012) World Economic Outlook, October, Chapter 1, “Global Prospects and Policies”. Washington.Google Scholar
International Monetary Fund (2014) World Economic Outlook, October, Chapter 3, “Is It Time for an Infrastructure Push? The Macroeconomic Effects of Public Investment”. Washington.Google Scholar
International Monetary Fund (2020) Fiscal Monitor: Policies for the Recovery, October. Washington.Google Scholar
Jordà, Ò. (2005) Estimation and inference of impulse responses by local projections. American Economic Review 95(1), 161182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kilian, L. and Lütkepohl, H. (2017) Structural Vector Autoregressive Analysis. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laumer, S. (2020) Government spending and heterogeneous consumption dynamics. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 114, 103868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leduc, S. and Wilson, D. (2013) Roads to prosperity or bridges to nowhere? Theory and evidence on the impact of public infrastructure investment. NBER Macroeconomics Annual 27(1), 89142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leeper, E. M., Walker, T. B. and Yang, S.-C. S. (2010) Government investment and fiscal stimulus. Journal of Monetary Economics 57(8), 10001012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leeper, E. M., Richter, A. W. and Walker, T. B. (2012) Quantitative effects of fiscal foresight. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 4(2), 115144.Google Scholar
Leeper, E. M., Walker, T. B. and Yang, S.-C. S. (2013) Fiscal foresight and information flows. Econometrica 81(3), 11151145.Google Scholar
Leeper, E. M., Traum, N. and Walker, T. B. (2017) Clearing up the fiscal multiplier morass. American Economic Review 107(8), 24092454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miyamoto, W., Nguyen, T. L. and Sergeyev, D. (2018) Government spending multipliers under the zero lower bound: Evidence from Japan. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 10(3), 247277.Google Scholar
Mountford, A. and Uhlig, H.. (2009) What are the effects of fiscal policy shocks? Journal of Applied Econometrics 24(6), 960992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olea, J. L. M. and Pflueger, C. (2013) A robust test for weak instruments. Journal of Business & Economic Statistics 31(3), 358369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owyang, M. T., Ramey, V. A. and Zubairy, S.. (2013) Are government spending multipliers greater during periods of slack? Evidence from twentieth-century historical data. American Economic Review 103(3), 129134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pappa, E. (2009) The effects of fiscal expansions: An international comparison. Barcelona Graduate School of Economics Working Papers No.409.Google Scholar
Perotti, R. (2004a) Estimating the Effects of Fiscal Policy in OECD Countries. IGIER Working Paper No.276, Innocenzo Gasperini Institute for Economic Research, Bocconi University.Google Scholar
Perotti, R. (2004b) Public investment: another (different) look. IGIER Working Paper No.277, Innocenzo Gasperini Institute for Economic Research, Bocconi University.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perotti, R. (2007) In search of the transmission mechanism of fiscal policy. NBER Working Paper No.13143, National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quaghebeur, E. (2019) Learning and the size of the government spending multiplier. Macroeconomic Dynamics 23(8), 31893224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramey, V. A. (2011a) Can government purchases stimulate the economy? Journal of Economic Literature 49(3), 673685.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramey, V. A. (2011b) Identifying government spending shocks: It’s all in the timing. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 126(1), 150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramey, V. A. (2016) Macroeconomic shocks and their propagation. In: Taylor, J. B. and Uhlig, H. (eds.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, Vol. 2, pp. 71–162, Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramey, V. A. (2020) The macroeconomic consequences of infrastructure investment. NBER Working Paper No. 27625, National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramey, V. A. and Shapiro, M. D. (1998) Costly capital reallocation and the effects of government spending. Carnegie-Rochester conference series on public policy. Vol. 48. North-Holland.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramey, V. A. and Zubairy, S. (2018) Government spending multipliers in good times and in bad: evidence from US historical data. Journal of Political Economy 126(2), 850901.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riera-Crichton, D., Vegh, C. A. and Vuletin, G. (2015) Procyclical and countercyclical fiscal multipliers: Evidence from OECD countries. Journal of International Money and Finance 52, 1531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romer, C. D. and Romer, D. H. (2010) The macroeconomic effects of tax changes: estimates based on a new measure of fiscal shocks. American Economic Review 100(3), 763801.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skidelsky, R. (2001) John Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Britain, 1937–46. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Spilimbergo, A., Schindler, M. and Symansky, S. (2009) Fiscal multipliers. Vol. 2009. No. 11. International Monetary Fund.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tenhofen, J., Wolff, G. B. and Heppke-Falk, K. H. (2010) The macroeconomic effects of exogenous fiscal policy shocks in Germany: a disaggregated SVAR analysis. Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik 230(3), 328355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uhlig, H. (2005) What are the effects of monetary policy on output? Results from an agnostic identification procedure. Journal of Monetary Economics 52(2), 381419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodford, M. (2011) Simple analytics of the government expenditure multiplier. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 3(1), 135.Google Scholar