The dynamic effects of fiscal policy : a FAVAR approach

Abstract

We implement a recently developed econometric model, the Factor Augmented VAR (FAVAR), to investigate the dynamic effects of government spending on key macroeconomic variables. In line with existing literature, we find that a government spending shock has positive effects on consumption and output. By splitting the sample in a pre-and post- Volcker period, we find that the positive effects of government spending on consumption and output over the whole sample are largely due to the first part of the sample.