Suchergebnisse

The analysis of many budget deficit theories is too demanding for undergraduate students. This paper illustrates governments' incentives to create budget deficits by means of a simple graphical model. It integrates four budget deficit theories: The theory of the state as Leviathan, two different strategic deficit theories, and the theory of tax competition. These theories are embedded into an illustrative example of political competition between a conservative party and a liberal party. The main pedagogical benefits of the model are its intuitive setup and its waiver of demanding analysis.

We connect the theories of strategic debt and tax competition in a model and explore whether capital mobility coupled with a strategic debt effectively tames Leviathan. Our proposition is that in the case of a small open economy international tax competi-tion for mobile capital opens the way to a previously unexplored sort of strategic deficit. The incumbent conservative government builds a reelection strategy on the downwards pressure on mobile factor tax rates caused by tax competition the liberal successor will be exposed to. As a result it can raise its chances to be reelected by tying the successor's hands on expenditure issues.