Ricardian equivalence under imperfect information

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Pozzi, Lorenzo
• 署名单位: Ghent University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2006.01.001
• 发表日期: 2006
• 页码: 2009-2026
• 关键词: private consumption; government expenditures; ricardian equivalence; excess sensitivity; government budget constraint; imperfect information

摘要

In the US, aggregate private consumption changes are excessively sensitive not only to current and lagged changes in income, but also to current and lagged changes in government expenditures. I give a new theoretical interpretation to this observation. I show that this excess sensitivity arises when consumers take into account the link between taxes and government expenditures (i.e. when they are Ricardian), but lack exact information on the aggregate economy. While the model provides a simultaneous explanation for both types of excess sensitivity, the strong restrictions that it imposes on the data are not supported by the results of econometric estimation. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.