Makroökonomische Stabilisierung und „Beggar-Thy-Neighbour“-Verhalten am Beispiel der Finanzkrise

Discretionary fiscal policy can – owing to spillover effects – share characteristics of a public good, whenever some countries stabilize output, whereas others free ride and benefit from increasing import demand. Economic theory suggests that especially small countries and countries with large import shares have an incentive to free ride and stabilize less intensively. Prominent US-economists blamed the German government that it pursues a “Beggar-thy-Neighbour” policy during the current financial crisis. We investigate this hypothesis by analyzing the stimulus packages of roughly 50 countries during the financial crisis. Generally, the effects of country size and import shares are small suggesting that there is no need for international coordination of fiscal policy.