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Running Primary Deficits Forever in a Dynamically Efficient Economy: Feasibility and Optimality

Econometrica 2025 93(5), 1601-1633
Government debt can be rolled over forever without primary surpluses in some stochastic economies, including some economies that are dynamically efficient. In an overlapping‐generations model with constant growth rate, g , of labor‐augmenting productivity, and with shocks to the durability of capital, we show that along a balanced growth path, the maximum sustainable ratio of bonds to capital is attained when the risk‐free interest rate, r f , equals g . Furthermore, this maximal ratio maximizes utility per capita along a balanced growth path and ensures that the economy is dynamically efficient.