The form of government and fiscal dynamics

Abstract

Using a combination of time-series variation in oil prices and cross-section variation in the oil intensity of countries, this paper investigates whether exogenous shifts in the gov- ernment revenues a¤ect the government expenditures di¤erently depending on the political institutions of the form of government. Comparing the scal policy dynamics in parliamen- tary and presidential systems, a main nding is that the government expenditures appear more responsive to shifts in the revenues when the form of government is presidential.