Data and Code for: Debt Revenue and the Sustainability of Public Debt

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
GFSE.zip	application/zip	13.5 MB	09/19/2022 08:14:AM
GFSMAB.zip	application/zip	12.3 MB	09/19/2022 08:14:AM
WEOOct2021all.xls	text/plain	9.3 MB	09/19/2022 08:14:AM

Project Description

Summary:

While public debt has risen in the last two decades, the return that it offers to investors has fallen, especially relative to the return on private investment. This creates a revenue for the government as the supplier of the special services offered by public bonds, which include storage of value, safety, liquidity, and reprieve from repression. The present value of this debt revenue is large relative to the stock of public debt, keeping it sustainable even as the present value of primary balances is zero or negative. It gives rise to different policy tradeoffs than the conventional analysis of primary balances and makes different recommendation on the effects of austerity, the optimal amount of debt, or the spillovers between monetary and fiscal policy.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      E43 Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
      E62 Fiscal Policy
      H63 National Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt

Data Type(s): program source code

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Published Versions

V1 [2022-12-08]

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Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

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