Deficits and Interest Rates as Evidence of Ricardian Equivalence

A number of empirical studies have failed to find a significant relationship between deficits and interest rates. This "non-finding" has become something of a stylized fact among many economists and is often cited as evidence of the validity of the Ricardian equivalence theorem. In this paper we show that estimates of reduced-form interest rate equations do not provide direct information about structural parameters that might reveal Ricardian equivalence. As a result, an insignificant relationship between deficits and interest rates is only a necessary, not a sufficient, condition for Ricardian equivalence.