IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/series/v6y2015i4p479-496.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Welfare and inequality effects of debt consolidation processes: the case of Spain, 1996–2007

Author

Listed:
  • Miguel Viegas
  • Ana Ribeiro

Abstract

The Spanish debt consolidation between 1996 and 2007 represents, by its size and duration, an impressive case among the European Union countries. This paper aims at characterizing the Spanish debt consolidation process in order to assess its effects on economic inequality and welfare. For that purpose we built a general equilibrium heterogeneous-agent model capable of exploring the relationship between fiscal policy variables and the endogenous cross-section distribution of income and wealth. The results show a quite impressive positive welfare gain despite significant transition costs. The simulations point to an increase of inequality during the initial transition period, reversing to more compressed distributions as the economy evolves to its final steady state equilibrium. Overall, the welfare gains are slightly biased towards wealthier individuals. Furthermore empirical data on the dynamics of some crucial variables during the consolidation period lend support to the model simulation results. Copyright The Author(s) 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Miguel Viegas & Ana Ribeiro, 2015. "Welfare and inequality effects of debt consolidation processes: the case of Spain, 1996–2007," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 479-496, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:series:v:6:y:2015:i:4:p:479-496
    DOI: 10.1007/s13209-015-0133-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s13209-015-0133-2
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13209-015-0133-2?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fuente,Angel de la, 2000. "Mathematical Methods and Models for Economists," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521585293, October.
    2. Bewley, Truman, 1983. "A Difficulty with the Optimum Quantity of Money," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(5), pages 1485-1504, September.
    3. Aschauer, David Alan, 1989. "Is public expenditure productive?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 177-200, March.
    4. Aiyagari, S. Rao & McGrattan, Ellen R., 1998. "The optimum quantity of debt," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 447-469, October.
    5. Alberto Alesina & Roberto Perotti, 1995. "Fiscal Expansions and Fiscal Adjustments in OECD Countries," NBER Working Papers 5214, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Pablo Burriel & Jesús Fernández-Villaverde & Juan Rubio-Ramírez, 2010. "MEDEA: a DSGE model for the Spanish economy," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 175-243, March.
    7. Lars Ljungqvist & Thomas J. Sargent, 2004. "Recursive Macroeconomic Theory, 2nd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 026212274x, April.
    8. Tauchen, George, 1986. "Statistical Properties of Generalized Method-of-Moments Estimators of Structural Parameters Obtained from Financial Market Data: Reply," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 4(4), pages 423-425, October.
    9. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    10. S. Rao Aiyagari, 1994. "Uninsured Idiosyncratic Risk and Aggregate Saving," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 659-684.
    11. Viegas, Miguel & Ribeiro, Ana Paula, 2013. "Welfare-improving government behavior and inequality in a heterogeneous agents model," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 146-160.
    12. Aiyagari, S Rao, 1995. "Optimal Capital Income Taxation with Incomplete Markets, Borrowing Constraints, and Constant Discounting," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(6), pages 1158-1175, December.
    13. Janos Varga & Werner Roeger & Jan in’t Veld, 2014. "Growth effects of structural reforms in Southern Europe: the case of Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(2), pages 323-363, May.
    14. Ganelli, Giovanni & Tervala, Juha, 2010. "Public infrastructures, public consumption, and welfare in a new-open-economy-macro model," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 827-837, September.
    15. Lane, Philip R. & Milesi-Ferretti, Gian Maria, 2007. "The external wealth of nations mark II: Revised and extended estimates of foreign assets and liabilities, 1970-2004," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 223-250, November.
    16. Ana Castaneda & Javier Diaz-Gimenez & Jose-Victor Rios-Rull, 2003. "Accounting for the U.S. Earnings and Wealth Inequality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(4), pages 818-857, August.
    17. Imrohoruglu, Ayse, 1989. "Cost of Business Cycles with Indivisibilities and Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(6), pages 1364-1383, December.
    18. Robert Barro, 1973. "The control of politicians: An economic model," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 19-42, March.
    19. Alfonso Novales & Esther Fernández & Jesús Ruiz, 2022. "Economic Growth," Springer Texts in Business and Economics, Springer, edition 3, number 978-3-662-63982-5, October.
    20. Ni, Shawn, 1995. "An empirical analysis on the substitutability between private consumption and government purchases," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 593-605, December.
    21. Lane, Philip & Milesi-Ferretti, Gian Maria, "undated". "External Wealth of Nations," Instructional Stata datasets for econometrics extwealth, Boston College Department of Economics.
    22. Enrique G. Mendoza & Vincenzo Quadrini & José-Víctor Ríos-Rull, 2009. "Financial Integration, Financial Development, and Global Imbalances," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(3), pages 371-416, June.
    23. José Hernández & Ignacio Mauleón, 2005. "Econometric estimation of a variable rate of depreciation of the capital stock," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 575-595, October.
    24. Mr. Paolo Mauro & Mr. Enric Fernandez, 2000. "The Role of Human Capital in Economic Growth: The Case of Spain," IMF Working Papers 2000/008, International Monetary Fund.
    25. Huggett, Mark, 1993. "The risk-free rate in heterogeneous-agent incomplete-insurance economies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 17(5-6), pages 953-969.
    26. Tauchen, George, 1986. "Statistical Properties of Generalized Method-of-Moments Estimators of Structural Parameters Obtained from Financial Market Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 4(4), pages 397-416, October.
    27. Marimon, Ramon & Scott, Andrew (ed.), 1999. "Computational Methods for the Study of Dynamic Economies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198294979.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Darío Serrano-Puente, 2020. "Optimal progressivity of personal income tax: a general equilibrium evaluation for Spain," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 407-455, December.

    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. Viegas, Miguel & Ribeiro, Ana Paula, 2013. "The Dutch experience: Assessing the welfare impacts of two consolidation strategies using a heterogeneous-agent framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 351-360.
    2. Miguel Viegas & Ana Ribeiro, 2014. "The Economic Adjustment Program for Portugal: assessing welfare impact in a heterogeneous-agent framework," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 13(1), pages 53-70, April.
    3. Viegas, Miguel & Ribeiro, Ana Paula, 2016. "Assessing Welfare Impacts Of Some Debt-Consolidation Episodes In The European Union," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(5), pages 1146-1173, July.
    4. Viegas, Miguel & Ribeiro, Ana Paula, 2013. "Welfare-improving government behavior and inequality in a heterogeneous agents model," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 146-160.
    5. Ana Paula Ribeiro & Miguel Viegas, 2011. "Welfare-improving Government Behaviour and Inequality-Inspection using a Heterogeneous-agents Model," EcoMod2011 3014, EcoMod.
    6. Miguel Viegas & Ana Paula Ribeiro, 2017. "Fiscal Consolidations: A Theoretical Essay with a Heterogeneous-Agent Model," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 206-223, April.
    7. Clemens, Christiane & Heinemann, Maik, 2015. "Endogenous growth and wealth inequality under incomplete markets and idiosyncratic risk," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 300-317.
    8. Benhabib, Jess & Bisin, Alberto & Zhu, Shenghao, 2015. "The wealth distribution in Bewley economies with capital income risk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PA), pages 489-515.
    9. Cozzi, Marco, 2014. "Equilibrium Heterogeneous-Agent models as measurement tools: Some Monte Carlo evidence," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 208-226.
    10. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8623 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Marcet, Albert & Obiols-Homs, Francesc & Weil, Philippe, 2007. "Incomplete markets, labor supply and capital accumulation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(8), pages 2621-2635, November.
    12. Athreya, Kartik B., 2014. "Big Ideas in Macroeconomics: A Nontechnical View," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262019736, April.
    13. Conesa, Juan Carlos & Krueger, Dirk, 2006. "On the optimal progressivity of the income tax code," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(7), pages 1425-1450, October.
    14. Ayse Kabukcuoglu, 2014. "The Redistributional Consequences of Tax Reform Under Financial Integration," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1418, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    15. Konstantinos Angelopoulos & Spyridon Lazarakis & James Malley, 2019. "Savings externalities and wealth inequality," Working Papers 2019-05, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    16. Anagnostopoulos Alexis & Tang Xin, 2015. "Evaluating linear approximations in a two-country model with occasionally binding borrowing constraints," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 43-91, January.
    17. Akyol, Ahmet, 2004. "Optimal monetary policy in an economy with incomplete markets and idiosyncratic risk," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 1245-1269, September.
    18. Jess Benhabib & Alberto Bisin & Shenghao Zhu, 2014. "The Wealth Distribution in Bewley Models with Investment Risk," NBER Working Papers 20157, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/8623 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Ctirad Slavík & Hakki Yazici, 2022. "Wage Risk and the Skill Premium," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(646), pages 2207-2230.
    21. François Le Grand & Xavier Ragot, 2022. "Managing Inequality Over Business Cycles: Optimal Policies With Heterogeneous Agents And Aggregate Shocks," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(1), pages 511-540, February.
    22. François Legrand & Xavier Ragot, 2016. "Optimal policy with heterogeneous agents and aggregate shocks : An application to optimal public debt dynamics," 2016 Meeting Papers 1272, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    European Union; Fiscal consolidation dynamics; Heterogeneous agent model; Inequality; Spain; Welfare; E17; E60; H60; I30;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E17 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General
    • H60 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - General
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - 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:spr:series:v:6:y:2015:i:4:p:479-496. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.