Defining the Government's Debt and Deficit /

Although the budget deficit and the public debt feature prominently in political debate and economic research, there is no agreement about how they should be measured. They can be defined for different sets of public institutions, including the nested sets corresponding to central government, genera...

Descrición completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor Principal: Irwin, Timothy
Formato: Revista
Idioma:English
Publicado: Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2015.
Series:IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2015/238
Acceso en liña:Full text available on IMF
LEADER 02376cas a2200241 a 4500
001 AALejournalIMF015620
008 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d
020 |c 5.00 USD 
020 |z 9781513547503 
022 |a 1018-5941 
040 |a BD-DhAAL  |c BD-DhAAL 
100 1 |a Irwin, Timothy. 
245 1 0 |a Defining the Government's Debt and Deficit /  |c Timothy Irwin. 
264 1 |a Washington, D.C. :  |b International Monetary Fund,  |c 2015. 
300 |a 1 online resource (36 pages) 
490 1 |a IMF Working Papers 
500 |a <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required 
500 |a <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required 
506 |a Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students 
520 3 |a Although the budget deficit and the public debt feature prominently in political debate and economic research, there is no agreement about how they should be measured. They can be defined for different sets of public institutions, including the nested sets corresponding to central government, general government, and the public sector, and, for any definition of government, there are many measures of the debt and deficit, including those generated by four kinds of accounts (cash, financial, full accrual, and comprehensive), which can be derived from four nested sets of assets and liabilities. Each debt and deficit measure says something about public finances, but none tells the whole story. Each is also vulnerable to manipulation, and is likely to be manipulated if it is subject to a binding fiscal rule or target. Narrow definitions of government encourage the shifting of spending to entities outside the defined perimeter of government. Narrow definitions of debt and deficit encourage operations involving off-balance-sheets assets and liabilities, while broad measures are susceptible to the mismeasurement of on-balance-sheet assets and liabilities. Reviewing the literature on these issues, the paper concludes that governments should publish several measures of the debt and deficit in a form that clearly reveals their interrelationships. 
538 |a Mode of access: Internet 
830 0 |a IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ;  |v No. 2015/238 
856 4 0 |z Full text available on IMF  |u http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2015/238/001.2015.issue-238-en.xml  |z IMF e-Library