https://9p7pzq3jbl.execute-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/ProdStage Skip to main content
Publications
Advanced Search

View metadata

dc.titleConstraints or Opportunities?: Labor Informality and Public Investment in Shaping Debt Limits
dc.contributor.authorMéndez-Vizcaíno, Juan Camilo
dc.contributor.authorMoreno-Arias, Nicolás
dc.contributor.orgunitDepartment of Research and Chief Economist
dc.coverageColombia
dc.date.available2023-08-24T00:08:00
dc.date.issue2023-08-24T00:08:00
dc.description.abstractThis paper presents a comprehensive framework examining fiscal sustainability in developing economies. It integrates public capital, labor informality, and global liquidity shocks in a two-sector DSGE model for a small open economy, revealing their intricate interplay and nonlinear impact on State-Dependent Debt Limits. The framework highlights the significance of initial public capital levels and efficiency in determining the benefits of public investment. High informality rates erode the tax base, compromising the efficiency of public capital for fiscal purposes by weakening revenue generation relative to costs. Adverse global liquidity shocks may significantly contract the fiscal limit distribution only if they are perceived as permanent. Through model calibration and sensitivity exercises on Colombia's fiscal limit distribution, quantitative analyses shed light on underlying mechanisms. Findings challenge the frequent practice of cutting public investment in response to declining revenues, emphasizing it can actually reduce fiscal space. The framework underscores the importance of assessing fiscal policy consolidations aimed at ensuring debt sustainability and responses to global shocks using a structural model, while stressing the fiscal benefits of informality-reducing reforms.
dc.format.extent48
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0005091
dc.identifier.urlhttps://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Constraints-or-Opportunities-Labor-Informality-and-Public-Investment-in-Shaping-Debt-Limits.pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherInter-American Development Bank
dc.subjectFiscal Policy
dc.subjectPublic Debt
dc.subjectInformal Labor
dc.subjectPublic Investment
dc.subjectEconomy
dc.subjectInformal Economy
dc.subjectWage
dc.subjectLabor
dc.subjectLabor Force
dc.subjectFiscal Sustainability
dc.subject.jelcodeE32 - Business Fluctuations • Cycles
dc.subject.jelcodeE62 - Fiscal Policy
dc.subject.jelcodeH20 - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General
dc.subject.jelcodeH30 - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: General
dc.subject.jelcodeH50 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: General
dc.subject.jelcodeH60 - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt: General
dc.subject.keywordsPublic Debt;Labor informality;public investment;Fiscallimit;Fiscal space;fiscal sustainability;Global liquidity
dc.typeWorking Papers
idb.identifier.pubnumberIDB-WP-01499
idb.operationRG-K1098
Return to Publication