A timely and incisive look at austerity measures that succeed—and
those that don’t Fiscal austerity is hugely controversial. Opponents
argue that it can trigger downward growth spirals and become
self-defeating. Supporters argue that budget deficits have to be
tackled aggressively at all times and at all costs. In this masterful
book, three of today’s leading policy experts cut through the
political noise to demonstrate that there is not one type of austerity
but many. Looking at thousands of fiscal measures adopted by sixteen
advanced economies since the late 1970s, Austerity assesses the
relative effectiveness of tax increases and spending cuts at reducing
debt. It shows that spending cuts have much smaller costs in terms of
output losses than tax increases. Spending cuts can sometimes be
associated with output gains in the case of expansionary austerity and
are much more successful than tax increases at reducing the growth of
debt. The authors also show that austerity is not necessarily the kiss
of death for political careers as is often believed, and provide new
insights into the recent cases of European austerity after the
financial crisis. Bringing needed clarity to one of today’s most
challenging subjects, Austerity charts a sensible approach based on
data analysis rather than ideology.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780691185019
Publisert
2018
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok