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Financial Sustainability and Public Debt Management in Central Government

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Financial Sustainability in Public Administration

Abstract

By exploring the link between sovereign debt capacity and financial sustainability in central government , this chapter disentangles financial sustainability mechanisms that are specific to the public sector. These mechanisms point to: (i) public debt management and its refinancing process, which transforms sovereign debt in quasi-money; (ii) the taxing power, and (iii) the assurance of collective obligations and guarantees such as unfunded ‘pay-as-you-go’ pension schemes. In this context, some evergreen issues are raised such as: Can public debt sustainability be examined on the same basis as private debt sustainability? Are sustainability and funding linked? Shall governments fully repay their debt one day?

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Acknowledgements

Yuri Biondi is tenured senior research fellow of the Cnrs, France (IRISSO, University Paris Dauphine PSL), and research director at the Financial Regulation Research Lab (Labex ReFi), Paris, France. Authors thank Sotirios Karatzimas, Ioanna Malkogianni, Iris Rauskala, Alexandre Makaronidis, Andreas Bergmann, Giovanna Dabbicco, and Sandra Cohen for their comments and suggestions. This chapter was presented at the EGPA PSG XII Spring Workshop (Malta University, 4–5 May 2017); the International Atlantic Economic Conference (IAES, Berlin, 22–25 March 2017); and the 16th Biennial CIGAR Conference (University of Porto, 7–9 June 2017). Usual disclaimer applies.

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  1. IRISSO (University Paris Dauphine PSL) and Labex ReFi, French National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris, France

    Yuri Biondi

  2. Paris Dauphine University PSL, Paris, France

    Marion Boisseau-Sierra

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Correspondence to Yuri Biondi .

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  1. University of Granada , Granada, Spain

    Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar

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Biondi, Y., Boisseau-Sierra, M. (2017). Financial Sustainability and Public Debt Management in Central Government . In: Rodríguez Bolívar, M. (eds) Financial Sustainability in Public Administration. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57962-7_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57962-7_7

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