Debt and Growth: Historical Evidence

Christian Breuer () and Carsten Colombier ()
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Christian Breuer: Chemnitz University of Technology, Department of Economics, Junior Professorship for European Economics and ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics
Carsten Colombier: FiFo - Institute for Public Economics, University of Cologne, Germany; Federal Finance Department, Bern, Switzerland

No 36, Chemnitz Economic Papers from Department of Economics, Chemnitz University of Technology

Abstract: In this paper we examine the relationship between public debt and economic growth in a large historical panel dataset of 17 OECD economics over the period 1870 - 2016. We do not provide evidence for a statistically significant and robust relationship between government debt and growth. While our baseline regressions support the "conventional view" that government debt is negatively associated with economic growth, particularly in the aftermath of World War II, these results appear to be not robust to alternative specifications.

Keywords: Goverment Debt; Economic Growth; Robustness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E62 H56 H63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2020-01, Revised 2020-01
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Published in Chemnitz Economic Papers, January 2020, pages 1-21

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tch:wpaper:cep036

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