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Does Political Polarization Lead to a Rise in Government Debt?

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  • Insook Lee

    (Bay Area International Business School, Beijing Normal University)

Abstract

Existing politico-economic theories offer two mutually conflicting predictions on whether an increase in the degree of political polarization entails a rise or a decline in government debt. This article estimates the effect of political polarization on government debt, utilizing panel data of the OECD countries from 1962 to 2015. The empirical analysis finds that an increase in the degree of political polarization leads to an increase in government debt, which provides supportive evidence for Alesina and Tabellini (1990) and the like. This finding remains the same across different estimation models, without and with instrumenting the explanatory variable of political polarization.

Suggested Citation

  • Insook Lee, 2022. "Does Political Polarization Lead to a Rise in Government Debt?," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 241(2), pages 3-25, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:hpe:journl:y:2022:v:241:i:2:p:3-25
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political polarization; Government debt; Governmet spending.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation

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