Crowding out, deficits, and interest rates: Reply

Conclusion

Spector and Van Cott argue that ‘... statistical significance of the relationship between interest rates and the deficit is irrelevant for the question of crowding out.’ This Reply in turn argues that studies of the impact of deficits upon interest rates may be very useful in determining whether (and perhaps how) crowding out occurs and that additional empirical analysis involving the interest sensitivity of commodity demand is necessary to then quantify the actual degree of crowding out.