IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v52y2024i3p345-375.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analyzing the Importance of the Determinants of Public Debt and Its Policy Implications: A Survey of Literature

Author

Listed:
  • Javier Cifuentes-Faura
  • Mihaela Simionescu

Abstract

Public debt is a key issue for government institutions, both because of the amount of its revenues, which partly compensate for the possible shortfall in tax collection, and because it is an essential instrument of fiscal policy for the government. This paper reviews the literature on the determinants of public debt in order to identify the explanatory variables of public debt according to the main theoretical and empirical studies. This work will support policy makers who have to obtain financial resources to cover essential and very necessary expenditures nowadays, such as health, education, or infrastructure investment, by controlling debt levels and fiscal pressure. The main policy implication we can derive from these results is that governments should use some of these instruments to reduce general government debt.

Suggested Citation

  • Javier Cifuentes-Faura & Mihaela Simionescu, 2024. "Analyzing the Importance of the Determinants of Public Debt and Its Policy Implications: A Survey of Literature," Public Finance Review, , vol. 52(3), pages 345-375, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:52:y:2024:i:3:p:345-375
    DOI: 10.1177/10911421231215019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10911421231215019
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/10911421231215019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manoel Bittencourt, 2015. "Determinants of Government and External Debt: Evidence from the Young Democracies of South America," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 463-472, May.
    2. Antonio M. Lopez-Hernandez & Jose Luis Zafra-Gomez & David Ortiz-Rodriguez, 2012. "Effects of the crisis in Spanish municipalities' financial condition: an empirical evidence (2005-2008)," International Journal of Critical Accounting, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(5/6), pages 631-645.
    3. Sinha, Pankaj & Arora, Varun & Bansal, Vishakha, 2011. "Determinants of Public Debt for middle income and high income group countries using Panel Data regression," MPRA Paper 32079, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Luiggi Donayre & Ariuna Taivan, 2017. "Causality between Public Debt and Real Growth in the OECD: A Country-by-country Analysis," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 36(2), pages 156-170, June.
    5. Hlongwane, Nyiko Worship & Daw, Olebogeng David, 2022. "Determinants of public debt in South Africa: A Regime-Switching Approach," MPRA Paper 113203, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Russell Smyth & Paresh Kumar Narayan, 2009. "A Panel Data Analysis of the Military Expenditure-External Debt Nexus: Evidence from Six Middle Eastern Countries," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 46(2), pages 235-250, March.
    7. Rinaldi, Laura & Sanchis-Arellano, Alicia, 2006. "Household debt sustainability: what explains household non-performing loans? An empirical analysis," Working Paper Series 570, European Central Bank.
    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. Ilhèm Gargouri & Majdi Ksantini, 2016. "The Determinants Of Public Debt," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 18(59), pages 111-124, March.
    2. Ulrich M. Ekouala, 2023. "The role of socio‐political factors in public debt accumulation: Evidence from CEMAC countries," International Studies of Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(3), pages 306-325, September.
    3. Chukwuebuka Bernard Azolibe, 2021. "Determinants of External Indebtedness in Heavily Indebted Poor Countries: What Macroeconomic and Socio-Economic Factors Matter?," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 66(2), pages 249-264, October.
    4. Mihaela Simionescu & Javier Cifuentes‐Faura, 2023. "Analysing public debt in the Mexican states: Spatial convergence, regional drivers and policy recommendations," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(4), pages 737-760, August.
    5. Ngasamiaku, Wilhelm M. & Ngong'ho, Sende, 2022. "Macroeconomic Determinants of Public Debt in Tanzania: Empirical Evidence and lessons for Post COVID-19 Recovery," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 10(5), December.
    6. Bilal Mehmood & Syed Hassan Raza & Rizwan Baqar, 2015. "Defence, Debt and Democracy: The 3D in South Asia," International Journal of Economics and Empirical Research (IJEER), The Economics and Social Development Organization (TESDO), vol. 3(7), pages 312-319, July.
    7. Halebić Jasmin & Moćević Amina, 2020. "Analysis of Public Debt at Subnational Government Levels: Evidence from Cantons in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 15(2), pages 109-123, December.
    8. Carrera, Jorge & de la Vega, Pablo, 2021. "The impact of income inequality on public debt," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    9. Amjad S. Qwader & Sulieman D. Aloshaibat, 2020. "Components of the Public Budget and their Effects on Public Debt in Jordan," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 10(3), pages 88-96.
    10. Alessandra Canepa & Fawaz Khaled, 2018. "Housing, Housing Finance and Credit Risk," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-23, May.
    11. İbrahim Özmen & Mihai Mutascu, 2024. "Public Debt and Growth: New Insights," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 8706-8736, June.
    12. Lukmanova, Elizaveta & Tondl, Gabriele, 2017. "Macroeconomic imbalances and business cycle synchronization. Why common economic governance is imperative for the Eurozone," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 130-144.
    13. Caruso Raul & Antonella Biscione, 2022. "Militarization and Income Inequality in European Countries (2000–2017)," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 28(3), pages 267-285, September.
    14. Barbara CAVALLETTI & Corrado LAGAZIO & Daniela VANDONE, 2008. "Il credito al consumo in Italia: benessere economico o fragilita’ finanziaria?," Departmental Working Papers 2008-24, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    15. Ziogas, Thanasis & Panagiotidis, Theodore, 2021. "Revisiting the political economy of fiscal adjustments," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    16. Ingrid Groessl & Ulrich Fritsche, 2006. "The Store-of-Value-Function of Money as a Component of Household Risk Management," Macroeconomics and Finance Series 200606, University of Hamburg, Department of Socioeconomics.
    17. Love, Inessa & Turk Ariss, Rima, 2014. "Macro-financial linkages in Egypt: A panel analysis of economic shocks and loan portfolio quality," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 158-181.
    18. Sorin Daniel MANOLE & Corina PETRESCU & Ramona Ioana VLADA, 2016. "Determinants of household loans," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(4(609), W), pages 89-102, Winter.
    19. Cristina OTTAVIANI & Daniela VANDONE, 2010. "Impulsivity and household indebtedness," Departmental Working Papers 2010-28, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    20. Vogiazas, Sophocles & Alexiou, Constantinos, 2014. "‘Putting The Horse Before The Cart’: A Pre-Crisis Panel Data Investigation Of Greek Bank’S Credit Growth," Review of Applied Economics, Lincoln University, Department of Financial and Business Systems, vol. 10(1-2), January.

    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:sae:pubfin:v:52:y:2024:i:3:p:345-375. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.