Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the trade-off between the need for budget consolidation and the desirability of expansionary fiscal policies as a means of demand management by simulating alternative scenarios with a macroeconometric model of the Slovenian economy. The simulations show that for the Slovenian economy, an expansionary fiscal policy is neither feasible nor desirable: it leads to unsustainable government debt and has only weak effects on income and employment. It turns out that the stability program of the Slovenian government and the related policy prescriptions of the EU lead to reasonable results in terms of public debt without strong adverse effects on output or unemployment. An expansionary fiscal policy is not desirable, as it results in unsustainable public debt without enhancing employment and output sufficiently.
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Acknowledgments
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 75th International Atlantic Economic Conference in Vienna, Austria, April 3–6, 2013. The authors also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the EU Commission through project MRTN-CT-2006-034270 COMISEF and from the Jubiläumsfonds of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (project no. 12166).
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Neck, R., Blueschke, D. & Weyerstrass, K. Trade-Off of Fiscal Austerity in the European Debt Crisis in Slovenia. Int Adv Econ Res 19, 367–380 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-013-9438-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-013-9438-8