On Fiscal Illusion and Ricardian Equivalence in Local Public Finance

On Fiscal Illusion in Local Public Finance: Re-examining Ricardian Equivalence and the Renter Effect

We reevaluate fi scal illusion in local public fi nance. The Ricardian Equivalence Theorem suggests that the fi nancing of a public program using either taxation or debt shouldn’t affect outcomes, because debt is capitalized into property values. In contrast, we show individuals may rationally prefer public debt if governments can borrow on more favorable terms. We also propose a new test for t...

The Tax and Petroleum Revenue Effect on Iran’s Public Expenditures (1994–2015), Employing Fiscal Illusion Approach

I ncreased expenditures and the government size is an important issue in public sector economics. In this regard, various theories have been developed in order to justify the reasons for the public expenditure growth, and the theories have been empirically tested. One of the outlooks explaining the government expenditures growth and the economy size, is fiscal illusion approach. According ...

Matching grants and Ricardian Equivalence

This paper investigates the effectiveness of matching grants to correct for interjurisdictional spillovers in the light of Bernheim general neutrality result. Indeed this result suggests that the usual argument that matching grants are needed to internalize the externality arising from the existence of interjuridictional spillovers is an artifact of the assumption that jurisdictions neglect the...

Essays in Local Public Finance

Ricardian Equivalence Survives Strategic Behavior

Robert Barro (1974) showed government debt has no real effects when generations are linked by altruistically motivated intergenerational transfers, a result now known widely as the Ricardian Equivalence Theorem. An important condition for debt neutrality is believed to be the absence of strategic interactions between members of different generations. I use a simple two-period, parent and child ...