Heylen, Freddy; Hoebeeck, Annelies; Buyse, Tim - In: European Journal of Political Economy 31 (2013) C, pp. 40-59
We study the evolution of the ratio of public debt to GDP during 132 fiscal episodes in 21 OECD countries in 1981–2008. Our main focus is on debt dynamics during 40 consolidation periods. To define these periods we use data on the evolution of the underlying cyclically adjusted primary...