Discussion paper
DP10584 Stimulus versus Austerity: The Asymmetric Government Spending Multiplier
Despite intense scrutiny estimates of the government spending multiplier remain highly uncertain with values ranging from 0.5 to 2. While a fiscal consolidation is generally assumed to have the same (mirror-image) effect as a fiscal expansion, we show that relaxing this assumption is crucial to understanding the effects of fiscal policy. The government spending multiplier is substantially below 1 for fiscal expansions, but the multiplier is substantially above 1 for fiscal consolidations.
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