Efficiency of the fiscal policy and the fiscal multipliers – the case of the Republic of Macedonia

Abstract

The aim of this paper is two-fold: to analyze the relevance of fiscal multiplier as concept used in assessing the efficiency of the fiscal policy in general, and to apply empirical analysis on the fiscal policy multipliers in the case of the Republic of Macedonia. On the first aspect, we emphasize the very different results obtained by the extensive empirical literature on the size and sign of fiscal multipliers, both for changes in taxes and changes in government expenditures. On the second aspect, we apply the VAR methodology in the analysis of the efficiency of the fiscal policy of the Republic of Macedonia during the period 2000-2012, so that we could be able to study the effects of various fiscal measures during the relatively good times preceding the global financial crisis and Great Recession as well as the effects of the various countercyclical fiscal measures aimed at alleviating the consequences of the macroeconomic downfall associated with those landmark events. One of the most interesting results of the empirical analysis in the paper is the negative sign obtained for the fiscal multipliers in the case of the Republic of Macedonia.