1 论文标题
A Modern History of Fiscal Prudence and  Profligacy
2 作者信息
Paolo Mauro, Rafael Romeu, Ariel Binder, Asad Zaman
3 出处和链接（比如，NBER working paper No.11000）IMF working paper WP/13/5
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2013/wp1305.pdf
4 摘要
We draw on a newly collected historical dataset of fiscal variables for a large panel of countries—
to our knowledge, the most comprehensive database currently available—to gauge the degree of
fiscal prudence or profligacy for each country over the past several decades. Specifically, our
dataset consists of fiscal revenues, primary expenditures, the interest bill (and thus both the
primary and the overall fiscal deficit), the government debt, and gross domestic product, for 55
countries for up to two hundred years. For the first time, a large cross country historical data set
covers both fiscal stocks and flows. Using Bohn’s (1998) approach and other tests for fiscal
sustainability, we document how the degree of prudence or profligacy varies significantly over
time within individual countries. We find that such variation is driven in part by unexpected
changes in potential economic growth and sovereign borrowing costs.