Action-Based Fiscal Consolidations and Economic Growth

Abstract

This paper tests the hypothesis that action-based fiscal consolidations have a negative effect on GDP growth. Using the IMF’s dataset on action-based fiscal consolidations, instrumental variables’ regressions show that action-based fiscal consolidations have a significant positive effect on GDP growth. The instrumental variables’ regressions also show that action-based fiscal consolidations significantly increase investment and productivity. The findings presented in this paper thus strongly reject the hypothesis that action-based fiscal consolidations reduce growth. The paper argues that least squares estimates presented in previous literature suffer from negative reverse causality bias: GDP growth has a significant positive effect on both the likelihood and the magnitude of action-based fiscal consolidations. To uncover causal effects of action-based fiscal consolidations, researchers need to use an instrumental variables approach.