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The weight of the median voter ageing on public debt

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  • Ernest Dautovic

    (European Central Bank
    University of Lausanne)

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between an ageing society and voter preference for financing public expenditures with debt versus income taxation. We focus on advanced economies and OECD members where ageing is relatively severe, the political process is more democratic, and economic institutions are subject to electorate scrutiny. Since there are no international data sources available for the median voter age, one of the contributions of this paper is the construction of a median voter series for the countries included in the study. The sample period covers 30 years, from 1980 to 2010. The panel estimates confirm the Brennan hypothesis (Const Polit Econ 23(3):182–198, 2012). A 1-year ageing of the median voter increases the public debt to GDP ratio by on the order of 4.5 percentage points.

Suggested Citation

  • Ernest Dautovic, 2018. "The weight of the median voter ageing on public debt," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 69-92, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:copoec:v:29:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s10602-017-9248-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10602-017-9248-8
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ageing; Public debt; Median voter; Democracy; Ricardian equivalence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H6 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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