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Debt limits and fiscal space for some Latin American economies

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  • Lozano-Espitia, Ignacio
  • Julio-Román, J. Manuel

Abstract

This paper provides evidence on the debt limits and fiscal space for some Latin American emerging economies under the fiscal fatigue approach (Ghosh et al., 2013). We propose the spline technique to estimate each government's reaction function and the sovereign risk premium endogenous to the country's indebtedness. Estimates were made with an unbalanced panel of 13 economies—six from Latin America—for the period 1980–2018. The results vary importantly across the countries. They suggest, for instance, that the Colombian public debt limit would be close to 68% of GDP and that the fiscal space—the gap between the current debt level and the estimated debt limit—would reach 16 percentage points. Among the other Latin American economies, Peru and Chile have the largest fiscal space (50% and 39%, respectively), while Ecuador has the lowest (13%). The findings for Mexico look like those of Colombia.

Suggested Citation

  • Lozano-Espitia, Ignacio & Julio-Román, J. Manuel, 2020. "Debt limits and fiscal space for some Latin American economies," Latin American Journal of Central Banking (previously Monetaria), Elsevier, vol. 1(1).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lajcba:v:1:y:2020:i:1:s2666143820300065
    DOI: 10.1016/j.latcb.2020.100006
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    Cited by:

    1. Fernando Arias-Rodríguez & Julián A. Parra-Polanía, 2021. "Pensiones y reforma pensional: efectos macroeconómicos del envejecimiento en Colombia," Borradores de Economia 1173, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    2. Juan C. Méndez-Vizcaíno & Nicolás Moreno-Arias, 2021. "A Global Shock with Idiosyncratic Pains: State-Dependent Debt Limits for LATAM during the COVID-19 pandemic," Borradores de Economia 1175, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    3. Ioana-Laura Țibulcă, 2021. "Debt Sustainability: Can EU Member States Use Environmental Taxes to Regain Fiscal Space?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Bournakis, Ioannis & Ramirez-Rondan, Nelson R., 2022. "Does uncertainty matter for the fiscal consolidation and capital intensity nexus?," MPRA Paper 111592, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Debt; Sustainability; Fiscal policy; Primary balance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E27 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E61 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H62 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Deficit; Surplus
    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt
    • H68 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Forecasts of Budgets, Deficits, and Debt

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