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This chapter discusses the evolution of German views on public debt 1850–1920, referring to three strands of secondary literature: (1) German retrospectives on public finance, (2) the historical literature with a public choice perspective, and (3) contributions to public/constitutional law, mainly referring to Lorenz von Stein. The skeptic view of public debt endorsed by authors of the second half of the period is shown to be related to politico-economic issues of state agency combined with new state functions, rather than to the rejection of Dietzel’s Proto-Keynesian macroeconomic reasoning.

The unsustainable public debt of most African economies adversely affects their economic growth and stability. This study aims to explore the influence of cross-country indicators of governance from African countries on public debt accumulation.

The study deployed a quantitative research design technique. Secondary data was used in this study. The frequency of the data is annual, and it is available from 1996 to 2022 for 48 countries in Africa. The study deployed the system generalized method of moments for the estimation.

The study finds that countries with high regulatory quality standards, control corruption and ensure effective governance accumulate less government debt while countries that abide by the rule of law instead accumulate more government debt. The study also finds that economic growth and government revenue reduce government gross debt while government expenditure and investments increase public debt.

Due to data unavailability, other factors which are likely to influence government debt accumulation were not included in the study as control variables. This is the limitation of the study.

African governments should strive to maintain high regulatory quality standards through the formulation and implementation of sound policies and regulations that permit and promote private sector development, and ensure quality and accountability of public and civil services. Governments are also urged to control corruption and enact good laws so that the enforcement of these laws will not worsen the risk of becoming debt-distressed.

Recent studies on governance and public debt were focused on the Arabian Gulf countries, countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and a combination of high and low-income countries. This study scrutinizes exclusively the effects of the quality of governance indicators on public debt accumulation, in the context of Africa.

Before the pandemic, World’s public debt was considered excessive, mainly by the standards set by the IMF, the European Union and the euro zone. Today, with the pandemic COVID-19, the world economy is facing an economic crisis that only the public authorities can contain, at least in the short term. In France, the Arthuis Commission is proposing to control public debt and return to debt reduction by the end of this decade. However, the economic stakes go beyond the crisis caused by the pandemic. It is also a question of preparing a different society, one that is less unequal and capable of engaging in sustainable economic development in the face of global warming. The concern is more about the excesses of international financial speculation, growing social inequalities and living conditions on Earth, which threaten the economic and social future of new generations much more than public debt.

Since the early modern age, the debt of the State was a constant source for concern to the Spanish governments. Episodes of defaults caused by enormous expenditure to keep the Empire slowly faded out until a certain reorganization of public finance was attained in the central decades of the nineteenth century. The core idea that finance ministers and economists, in general, had at that time was to balance the public budget controlling expenses, in order to handle the problem of public debt. However, alternative views on government finance existed. Focusing on a crucial period for the consolidation of Spanish liberal regime and its public finance, this chapter shows that, among a predominant concern for reducing public expenditure as the best way to stabilize the economy and promote economic growth, the character of Luis María Pastor emerges to support government expansionary policies financed with credit. Far from fearing deficit, Pastor, one of the leaders of the Spanish liberal school of economic thought, believed that investment in infrastructures financed through debt was the key to economic growth. Through a multiplicative effect, a program of public investment would enhance economic growth, eventually solving the long-term insufficiency of Spanish finance. This gives evidence that ideas on public finance of classical liberal economists were far from uniform, contributing to a more precise view on the body of doctrines of this school.

This study aims to investigate the public deficit issue by contrasting conventional and Islamic views encompassing the paradigm, technical base, orientation and consequence detailed in nine discussions, which are rarely investigated in the research. There is a predisposition that contemporary Muslim scholars discuss the public deficit as well as the private sector perspective, which is used in the conventional conception, without riba as a primary feature.

The paper develops a comparative approach that derives two perspectives from the available literature using the qualitative method under the critical thinking method. It was drawn up in detail on how the paradigm and its related budgeting process contribute to public deficits, mainly in government institutions.

The paper reveals a prominent difference in public deficit in the Islamic view from a conventional perspective. From 9 points of comparison, the analysis covers 18 discussion that differentiates between private and public area criticism seems to overlap. The foundation giving a unique perspective in Islam toward public deficit is the concept of ownership that differs from capitalism, mainly the function of public spending is to distribute the wealth among people not for economic growth. The Islamic Government spent for public purposes based on cash-basis budgeting. The budgeting system in Islamic public spending is founded on treasure availability.

The paper uses a qualitative method that cannot empirically snapshot the actual or factual condition, in which subjectivity plays a plausible role. Furthermore, there is no actual sample (best practices) of the concept to be examined.

The research encompasses overlap between Islamic and conventional perspectives, including public and private issues regarding public deficits. The main beneficiary of the paper is a policymaker, including academicians or practitioners who are appropriate to use the concept in their circumstances.

The study is a pioneering study in public deficit comprehensively comparing conventional and Islamic perspectives and drawing up conceptual and technical aspects.

South African public debt has recently increased significantly and has reached worrying levels. This study aims to examine the debt threshold effects on economic growth in South Africa, with an objective of suggesting a debt threshold as South African policymakers will seek to reduce debt to a sustainable level in the coming years.

The study applies a recent novel methodology advanced by Hansen (2017) that allows modelling a regression kink with an unknown threshold.

The findings of this study indicate a robust debt threshold of 37% of gross domestic product (GDP). Below this threshold, debt is growth-enhancing, but above 37% of GDP, debt is harmful to growth in South Africa.

Among other things, to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio, South Africa will need a fiscal consolidation policy by undertaking reforms to state-owned companies to reduce their reliance on public funds, as well as putting in place economic measures to boost long-term growth. The country should also improve tax collection in order to realize additional tax revenue through enhancing compliance and other revenue collection measures.

Most of the existing studies on debt threshold effects in Africa are panel data studies, which assume parameter homogeneity, by determining a single debt threshold value applicable to all countries. This can be misleading as the debt-growth nexus is country-specific, being conditional on several factors, such as institutional quality. The present study applies a recent novel methodology, which allows to model a regression kink with an unknown threshold, for the case of South Africa. The methodology endogenously determines the debt threshold while also allowing a country-specific analysis.

This study aims to examine whether debt financing creates incentives for private firms to engage in earnings management via classification shifting. Especially, the authors examine whether debt-induced financial reporting incentives differ depending on the type of debt (i.e. public bonds versus private loans) and whether such incentives are influenced by the characteristics of external auditors (i.e. initial audits and auditor size).

The study uses data on 93,427 Korean private firms from 2001 to 2016. Classification shifting is measured by the positive correlation between non-core expenses and unexpected core earnings estimated with ordinary least squares.

The empirical analyses reveal that private firms engage in classification shifting as do public firms. Importantly, classification shifting is observed only in private firms that have outstanding debt, but not in private firms without debt. Among debt-financing private firms, classification shifting is more prevalent for firms that issue public debt than for firms that only use private debt. In addition, classification shifting of debt-financing private firms is more successful when they are audited by new auditors that are one of the non-Big 4 firms.

The study provides evidence of classification shifting in private firms, which is novel to the literature. However, the inferences in the study depend on the validity of the model for detecting classification shifting.

This study helps lenders enhance their understanding on the financial reporting behaviors of borrowing firms. The results in this study suggest that lenders should be cautious in using core earnings for their investment decisions.

This study contributes to the literature by providing novel evidence of classification shifting in private firms. In addition, the authors contribute to the literature on debt-induced incentives for financial reporting.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between public debt, corporate debt service costs and private capital formation in South Africa.

To capture the long-run characteristic of investment, the study adopts the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares approach and tests for cointegration using Hansen (1992)'s Parameter Instability test.

We find that private capital formation increases in domestic debt and decreases in external debt during the pre-crisis period. However, during the period post the Global Financial Crisis, we find evidence of domestic public debt crowding out private capital formation, whereas external debt crowds-in capital formation. Debt service costs are found to reduce investment due to the effect of the debt overhang throughout the period under analysis.

The paper has important implications for macroeconomic policy. In particular, there is need for deleveraging and allocation of a higher proportion of debt to public infrastructure expenditure which has complementary effects on private investment.

Debt overhang signal that South African firms could be over-leveraged, which hinders future growth prospects. Firms that face high levels of debt should consider debt restructuring.

Empirical studies undertaken to explore this relationship have yielded contradicting results suggesting that the relationship between public debt and private investment is heterogeneous depending on a given economy or prevailing macroeconomic environment. In particular, existing research does not provide evidence on whether recent increases in public debt in South Africa have led to crowding-in or crowding-out of private investment. This paper therefore contributes to empirical literature on the impact of public debt on private investment within a small open economy.

The purpose of this paper is to study debt sustainability of countries with a resource-based economy on the example of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation.

Macroeconomic indicators and data on external and internal public debt of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation for the period from 2007 to 2019 were analyzed using quantitative, qualitative, comparative, descriptive and graphical methods. Based on the collected data, the indicators were calculated, analyzed and compared, taking into account the threshold values, using The Debt Sustainability Framework for Low-Income Countries of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The results of the study showed that the indicators of the public debt of both the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, during the period covered by the study, were in the zone of reduced risk and were stable. In addition, the study revealed a slight shift in the structure of the public debt of the Republic of Kazakhstan toward a decrease in the share of domestic borrowing (from 67% to 55%), whereas in the structure of the Russian public debt, the share of domestic borrowing increased significantly (from 52% to 74%).

The results of this study can be applied by scientists to analyze the sustainability of public debt in various countries and regions, as well as by officials to determine the fiscal and budgetary policies of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, as well as other states.