IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/jecper/v8y1994i1p95-111.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Should Generational Accounts Replace Public Budgets and Deficits?

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Haveman

Abstract

The author assesses the concept of 'generational accounts' and the specific accounts constructed by Alan Auerbach, Jagadeesh Gokhale, and Laurence Kotlikoff (1991). Although these accounts support the assertion of present-orientation in fiscal policy, they rest on numerous assumptions based on judgments that are open to question. These involve the treatment of the public budget constraint, the benefits from public exhaustive expenditures, economic and population projections, the discount rate, and fiscal incidence. Alternative and equally reasonable assumptions could yield radically different conclusions. The author concludes that the Auerbach, Gokhale, and Kotlikoff accounts should not replace the annual public budget, as they argue.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Haveman, 1994. "Should Generational Accounts Replace Public Budgets and Deficits?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 95-111, Winter.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:8:y:1994:i:1:p:95-111
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.8.1.95
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.8.1.95
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Evans, Paul, 1985. "Do Large Deficits Produce High Interest Rates?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 68-87, March.
    2. Alan J. Auerbach & Jagadeesh Gokhale & Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 1991. "Generational Accounts: A Meaningful Alternative to Deficit Accounting," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 55-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Bohn, Henning, 1992. "Budget deficits and government accounting," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 1-83, December.
    4. Auerbach, Alan J, 1989. "Tax Reform and Adjustment Costs: The Impact on Investment and Market Value," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 30(4), pages 939-962, November.
    5. Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Willi Leibfritz, 1999. "From Deficit Delusion to the Fiscal Balance Rule: Looking for an Economically Meaningful Way to Assess Fiscal Policy," NBER Chapters, in: Generational Accounting around the World, pages 9-30, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Blejer, Mario I & Cheasty, Adrienne, 1991. "The Measurement of Fiscal Deficits: Analytical and Methodological Issues," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 29(4), pages 1644-1678, December.
    7. Bradford, David F, 1975. "Constraints on Government Investment Opportunities and the Choice of Discount Rate," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(5), pages 887-899, December.
    8. Robert J. Lampman & Timothy M. Smeeding, 1983. "Interfamily Transfers As Alternatives To Government Transfers To Persons," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 29(1), pages 45-66, March.
    9. Poterba, James M. & Summers, Lawrence H., 1987. "Finite lifetimes and the effects of budget deficits on national saving," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 369-391, September.
    10. Evans, Paul, 1987. "Interest Rates and Expected Future Budget Deficits in the United States," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(1), pages 34-58, February.
    11. Hoelscher, Gregory, 1986. "New Evidence on Deficits and Interest Rates," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 18(1), pages 1-17, February.
    12. Evans, Paul, 1989. "A Test of Steady-State Government-Debt Neutrality," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 27(1), pages 39-55, January.
    13. Eisner, Robert, 1989. "Budget Deficits: Rhetoric and Reality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 73-93, Spring.
    14. Cutler, David M, 1988. "Tax Reform and the Stock Market: An Asset Price Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(5), pages 1107-1117, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elmendorf, Douglas W. & Gregory Mankiw, N., 1999. "Government debt," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 25, pages 1615-1669, Elsevier.
    2. Otto Gandenberger, 2000. "Is the Fiscal Deficit Misconceived? Proponents of Generational Accounting Overstate their Case," CESifo Working Paper Series 282, CESifo.
    3. Alan J. Auerbach & Jagadeesh Gokhale & Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 1994. "Generational Accounting: A Meaningful Way to Evaluate Fiscal Policy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 73-94, Winter.
    4. Normandin, Michel, 1999. "Budget deficit persistence and the twin deficits hypothesis," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 171-193, October.
    5. Damla Hacýibrahimoðlu & Pýnar Derin-Güre, 2015. "Generational Accounting in Turkey," Bogazici Journal, Review of Social, Economic and Administrative Studies, Bogazici University, Department of Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 1-26.
    6. Kitchen, John & Orden, David, 1991. "Effects of Fiscal Policy on Agriculture and the Rural Economy," Staff Reports 278556, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    7. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5221 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. David Alan Aschauer, 1990. "Is Government Spending Stimulative?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 8(4), pages 30-46, October.
    9. Timothy C. Irwin, 2015. "Defining The Government'S Debt And Deficit," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 711-732, September.
    10. Laopodis, Nikiforos T., 2009. "Fiscal policy and stock market efficiency: Evidence for the United States," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 633-650, May.
    11. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5221 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. M. A. Akhtar, 1995. "Monetary Policy And Long‐Term Interest Rates: A Survey Of Empirical Literature," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 13(3), pages 110-130, July.
    13. Cebula, Richard J., 1998. "An empirical analysis of the impact of federal budget deficits on long-term nominal interest rate yields, 1973.2-1995.4, using alternative expected inflation measures," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 55-64.
    14. Alan J. Auerbach, 2006. "Who Bears the Corporate Tax? A Review of What We Know," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 20, pages 1-40, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Hans Fehr & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Willi Leibfritz, 1999. "Generational Accounting in General Equilibrium," NBER Chapters, in: Generational Accounting around the World, pages 43-72, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Knot, Klaas & de Haan, Jakob, 1995. "Fiscal policy and interest rates in the European community," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 171-187, March.
    17. Richard J. Cebula, 1990. "A Keynesian Defense of the Reagan Deficit," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 47-52, January.
    18. Bruno Ducoudré, 2005. "Fiscal policy and interest rates," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2005-08, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    19. Richard J. Cebula, 2002. "A contemporary investigation of causality between the primary government budget deficit and the ex ante real long term interest rate in the US," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 55(223), pages 417-435.
    20. Cebula, Richard & Koch, James, 1988. "An Empirical Note on Deficits, Interest Rates, and International Capital Flows," MPRA Paper 50165, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Kitchen, John, 2002. "A Note on Interest Rates and Structural Federal Budget Deficits," MPRA Paper 21069, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Oct 2002.
    22. Luca Beltrametti & Matteo Della Valle, 2011. "Does the implicit pension debt mean anything after all?," CeRP Working Papers 118, Center for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies, Turin (Italy).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H60 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:8:y:1994:i:1:p:95-111. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.