Market-Based Fiscal Discipline in Monetary Unions

Download or read book Market-Based Fiscal Discipline in Monetary Unions written by Mr.Morris Goldstein and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1991-09-01 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of market-based fiscal discipline posits that a government which runs persistent, excessive fiscal deficits will face an increased cost of borrowing and eventually, a reduced availability of credit, and that these market actions will provide an incentive to correct irresponsible fiscal behavior. This paper presents new empirical evidence on market-based fiscal discipline by estimating the relationship between the cost of borrowing and fiscal policy behavior across U.S. states. We find that U.S. states which have followed more prudent fiscal policies are perceived by the market as having lower default risk and are therefore able to reap the benefit of lower borrowing costs.