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1 – 10 of over 15000The US federal deficit has, over the years, remained a subject of widespread concern and controversy. Diverse views continue to be expressed on such questions as whether the…
Abstract
The US federal deficit has, over the years, remained a subject of widespread concern and controversy. Diverse views continue to be expressed on such questions as whether the deficit matters, whether it is the inflation‐adjusted deficit that matters, whether bond‐financed deficits are inflationary, and whether it is only deficits that are financed by money creation which are inflationary. Against this background, few would disagree with Boskin (1982) that “progress in improving our understanding of the role of the budget deficit in economic behavior and performance… is an urgent research priority”.
This paper analyses the direct relationship between budget deficits and economic growth, the channels through which budget deficits inhibit growth and finally, the Granger…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper analyses the direct relationship between budget deficits and economic growth, the channels through which budget deficits inhibit growth and finally, the Granger causality between budget deficit and economic growth in South Africa over the period 1975 to 2020.
Design/methodology/approach
In a bid to control for endogeneity that is common in economic growth regressions, the author employed the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) approach.
Findings
Towards analysing the direct relationship between budget deficit and economic growth, results show that a 10-percentage rise in the budget deficit slows economic growth by 0.2 percentage points. Results show that the growth inhibiting consequences of the budget deficit in South Africa are principally driven by negatively affecting private and public physical capital accumulation growth, as well as a drop in gross national savings. However, results show no evidence of a deficit reduction effect through long term-real interest rate. The findings reveal a one-way Granger causality running from budget deficits to economic growth.
Practical implications
Based on the findings in this article, expanding the fiscal deficit to support growth is not a viable policy option for the South African economy.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in establishing the Granger causality between budget deficit and economic growth, thus adding to the scant literature, as well as establishing the channels through which budget deficit retards economic growth for the South African economy.
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Dhyani Mehta and M. Mallikarjun
This study aims to examine the impact of fiscal deficit, exchange rate and trade openness on current account deficit (CAD). The study tried to empirically investigate the ‘twin…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of fiscal deficit, exchange rate and trade openness on current account deficit (CAD). The study tried to empirically investigate the ‘twin deficits hypothesis’ and ‘compensation hypothesis’ in the Indian context.
Design/methodology/approach
Autoregressive distributed lagARDL) bound test approach was used by taking annual time series data from 1978 to 2021. The estimates confirm a significant long-run and short-run relationship between dependent variables, i.e. CAD and independent variables such as the fiscal deficit, exchange rate and trade openness.
Findings
The results show that positive shocks of all explanatory variables significantly affect the CAD. CAD and fiscal deficit are significantly associated, as the coefficient of fiscal deficit is positive and significant. The study also found that exchange rate and trade openness significantly affect the CAD. The coefficients of exchange rate and trade openness are positive and significant. The findings show that an increase in CADs results from liberal trade policies that help domestic industries grow their trade and expansionary fiscal policy, leading to a higher fiscal deficit. The negative and significant error correction term suggests that short-run disequilibrium converges to long-run equilibrium at a speed of 19.2%. The findings validate the ‘twin deficits hypothesis’ and ‘compensation hypothesis’ in the Indian context.
Practical implications
It can be inferred from the study that liberal policy to promote economic growth and trade openness should be designed and promoted judiciously. An excessive liberalised approach may impact other macroeconomic variables such as current account balances. Integrating the domestic market with global markets poses a big challenge for countries like India that aspire to penetrate global markets. Furthermore, the Indian policy makers should rigorously work and promote the policies such as Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) as reduction in fiscal deficits, trade imbalances will also be reduced.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the existing literature on ‘twin deficit’ and trade openness by giving new evidence on the trilemma between designing sustainable fiscal policy by spending wisely without imperilling the country's global presence and CAD.
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Yujia Liu, Changyong Liang, Jian Wu, Hemant Jain and Dongxiao Gu
Complex cost structures and multiple conflicting objectives make selecting an appropriate cloud service difficult. The purpose of this study is to propose a novel group consensus…
Abstract
Purpose
Complex cost structures and multiple conflicting objectives make selecting an appropriate cloud service difficult. The purpose of this study is to propose a novel group consensus decision making method for cloud services selection with knowledge deficit by trust functions.
Design/methodology/approach
This article proposes a knowledge deficit-based multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) method for cloud-service selection based on trust functions. Firstly, the concept of trust functions and a ranking method is developed to express the decision-making opinions. Secondly, a novel 3D normalized trust degree (NTD) is defined to measure the consensus levels. Thirdly, a knowledge deficit-based interactive consensus model is proposed for the inconsistent experts to modify their decision opinions. Finally, a real case study has been carried out to illustrate the framework and compare it with other methods.
Findings
The proposed method is practical and effective which is verified by the real case study. Knowledge deficit is an important concept in cloud service selection which is verified by the comparison of the proposed recommended mechanism based on KDD with the conventional recommended mechanism based on average value. A 3D NTD which considers three values (trust, not trust and knowledge deficit) is defined to measure the consensus levels. A knowledge deficit-based interactive consensus model is proposed to help decision-makers reach group consensus. The proposed group consensus model enables the inconsistent decision-makers to accept the revised opinions of those with less knowledge deficit, rather than accepting the recommended opinions averagely.
Originality/value
The proposed a knowledge deficit-based MCGDM cloud service selection method considers group consensus in cloud service selection. The concept of knowledge deficit is considered in modeling the group consensus measuring and reaching method.
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This essay aims to analyze the process of structural adjustment in developing countries. Its focus is on macroeconomic stabilization in the short‐term, but the analysis is…
Abstract
Purpose
This essay aims to analyze the process of structural adjustment in developing countries. Its focus is on macroeconomic stabilization in the short‐term, but the analysis is situated in a wider context to consider how it relates to the implications of structural reform in the medium‐term and the prospects for economic growth in the long‐term.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper begins by setting out the contours of the orthodox, the Keynesian and the heterodox perspectives on stabilization and adjustment to highlight the differences. Such different perspectives on macroeconomic theory and policy, it suggests, are attributable to differences in objectives, assumptions and beliefs. These are made explicit.
Findings
The paper argues that the relationship between stabilization and growth is characterized by inter‐connections rather than trade‐offs and suggests that outcomes depend on modes of adjustment. It also provides a macroeconomic analysis of government deficits and public finances, which are critical in the process of adjustment. This highlights the macroeconomic significance of government deficits and points to the fallacies of deficit fetishism based on accounting frameworks. The intersection of economics and politics in the design and implementation of macroeconomic policies is also explored.
Practical implications
Going beyond a critique of orthodox stabilization programmes, it shows that there are alternatives in macro‐management for economies in crisis, for which it is necessary to shift the focus from the financial to the real economy, from the short‐term to the long‐term, and from equilibrium to development.
Originality/value
The paper develops a heterodox perspective on the macroeconomics of structural adjustment and public finances. And, it sets out an alternative framework which straddles time horizons, to understand the restructuring of economies over time.
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Models fiscal policy interactions between fiscal authorities and privateinvestors in the foreign exchange market in a game‐theoretic framework.Using a two‐period game, I consider…
Abstract
Models fiscal policy interactions between fiscal authorities and private investors in the foreign exchange market in a game‐theoretic framework. Using a two‐period game, I consider the credible and noncredible announcements of the domestic fiscal authority with respect to the stance of its future fiscal policy. Each country faces a trade‐off between its current account and budget deficit objectives and time‐inconsistency arises due to lack of a sufficient number of policy instruments. For this game I derive explicitly the time consistent and precommitment policies for the domestic fiscal authority and explain that precommitment is welfare improving relative to the time‐consistent policy. In a two‐country framework, both precommitment with respect to the private sector and co‐operation between the two policymakers tend to improve welfare.
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Vandana Bhama, Pramod Kumar Jain and Surendra Singh Yadav
– The purpose of this paper is to test whether Indian firms follow the pecking order theory under situations of deficiency as well as surplus.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test whether Indian firms follow the pecking order theory under situations of deficiency as well as surplus.
Design/methodology/approach
The study examines Indian firms included in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 500 index, covering a time span of ten years (2003-2012). An extended model of pecking order theory is tested for deficit and surplus firms separately. The authors use ordinary least square regressions to test the results.
Findings
The findings indicate that the pecking order theory is an excellent descriptor for deficit firms, but a poor one for surplus firms. Deficit firms frequently issue debt to fill up deficiency requirements but keep their debt ratios in limit. In marked contrast, surplus firms have low debt to equity ratios and only occasionally redeem debt. They tend to retain funds for future expansion and other operational needs.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to firms included in the BSE 500 index, but could be extended to others. Future research work could also focus on debt sub-components.
Practical implications
The present study is useful for firms that are considering capital structure decisions and supports finding that deficit and surplus firms behave differently.
Originality/value
This is the first study separately testing the pecking order between deficit and surplus firms in an emerging market.
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Although first rank symptoms focus on positive symptoms of psychosis they are shared by a number of psychiatric conditions. The difficulty in differentiating bipolar disorder from…
Abstract
Although first rank symptoms focus on positive symptoms of psychosis they are shared by a number of psychiatric conditions. The difficulty in differentiating bipolar disorder from schizophrenia with affective features has led to a third category of patients often loosely labeled as schizoaffective. Research in schizophrenia has attempted to render the presence or absence of negative symptoms and their relation to etiology and prognosis more explicit. A dichotomous population is a recurring theme in experimental paradigms. Thus, schizophrenia is defined as process or reactive, deficit or non-deficit and by the presence or absence of affective symptoms. Laboratory tests confirm the clinical impression showing conflicting responses to dexamethasone suppression and clearly defined differences in autonomic responsiveness, but their patho-physiological significance eludes mainstream theory. Added to this is the difficulty in agreeing to what exactly constitutes useful clinical features differentiating, for example, negative symptoms of a true deficit syndrome from features of depression. Two recent papers proposed that the general and specific cognitive features of schizophrenia and major depression result from a monoamine-cholinergic imbalance, the former due to a relative muscarinic receptor hypofunction and the latter, in contrast, to a muscarinic hypersensitivity exacerbated by monoamine depletion. Further development of these ideas will provide pharmacological principles for what is currently an incomplete and largely, descriptive nosology of psychosis. It will propose a dimensional view of affective and negative symptoms based on relative muscarinic integrity and is supported by several exciting intracellular signaling and gene expression studies. Bipolar disorder manifests both muscarinic and dopaminergic hypersensitivity. The greater the imbalance between these two receptor signaling systems, the more the clinical picture will resemble schizophrenia with bizarre, incongruent delusions and increasingly disorganized thought. The capacity for affective expression, by definition a non-deficit syndrome, will remain contingent on the degree of preservation of muscarinic signaling, which itself may be unstable and vary between trait and state examinations. At the extreme end of muscarinic impairment, a deficit schizophrenia subpopulation is proposed with a primary and fixed muscarinic receptor hypofunction.
The genomic profile of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia overlap and both have a common dopaminergic intracellular signaling which is hypersensitive to various stressors. It is proposed that the concomitant muscarinic receptor upregulation differentiates the syndromes, being marked in bipolar disorder and rather less so in schizophrenia. From a behavioral point of view non-deficit syndromes and bipolar disorder appear most proximate and could be reclassified as a spectrum of affective psychosis or schizoaffective disorders. Because of a profound malfunction of the muscarinic receptor, the deficit subgroup cannot express a comparable stress response. None -theless, a convergent principle of psychotic features across psychiatric disorders is a relative monoaminergic-muscarinic imbalance in signal transduction.
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Md. Mahbub Alam, Md. Nazmus Sadekin and Sanjoy Kumar Saha
This paper aims to investigate the impact of selected macro-economic variables like real effective exchange rate (REER), GDP, inflation (INF), the volume of trade (TR) and money…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the impact of selected macro-economic variables like real effective exchange rate (REER), GDP, inflation (INF), the volume of trade (TR) and money supply (M2) on-budget deficit (BD) in Bangladesh over the period of 1980–2018.
Design/methodology/approach
By using secondary data, the paper uses the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and Granger Causality test. Johansen’s cointegration test is used to examine the long-run relationship among the variables under study.
Findings
Johansen’s cointegration test result shows that there exists a positive long-run relationship of selected macroeconomic variables (real effective exchange rate, inflation, the volume of trade and money supply) with the budget deficit, whereas GDP has a negative one. The short-run results from the VECM show that GDP, inflation and money supply have a negative relationship with the budget deficit. The Granger Causality test results reveal unidirectional causal relationships running from BD to REER; TR to BD; M2 to BD; GDP to REER; M2 to REER; INF to GDP; GDP to TR; M2 to GDP and bidirectional causal relationship between GDP and BD; TR and REER; M2 and TR.
Originality/value
Bangladesh has been experiencing a budget deficit since 1972 due to a decline in sources of revenue. This study contributes to the empirical debate on the causal nexus between macroeconomic variables and budget deficits by employing VECM and Granger Causality approaches.
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An exciting opportunity that many advanced industrial democracies faced in the late 1990s was the movement from budgetary deficit to surplus. This came after years of persistent…
Abstract
An exciting opportunity that many advanced industrial democracies faced in the late 1990s was the movement from budgetary deficit to surplus. This came after years of persistent deficits. Traditional decisionmaking theories such as budgetary incrementalism failed to explain this longrun relationship, since it has been inherently a short-run theory. This paper uses rational expectations theory to demonstrate its relationship to budgetary decision-making reforms and the deficit (surplus) for Canada, the UK and the United States. The results demonstrated that there was an intertemporal budget constraint in operation in the three countries, and decision-makers at the macro level used rational expectations in the formulation of their annual budget. In the theory, budget actors strived to balance their budget, but did so over the longrun as opposed to the short-run incrementalist interpretation.