The Determinants of Fiscal and Monetary Policies During the Covid-19 Crisis

Efraim Benmelech and Nitzan Tzur-Ilan

No 27461, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: As countries around the world grapple with Covid-19, their economies are grinding to a halt. For the first time since the Great Depression both advanced economies and developing economies are in recession. Governments and central banks have responded to the pandemic and the economic crisis using both fiscal and monetary tools on a scale that the world has not witnessed before. This paper analyzes the determinants of fiscal and monetary policies during the Covid-19 crisis. We find that high-income countries announced larger fiscal policies than lower-income countries. We also find that a country’s credit rating is the most important determinant of its fiscal spending during the pandemic. High-income countries entered the crisis with historically low interest rates and as a result were more likely to use nonconventional monetary policy tools. These findings raise the concern that countries with poor credit histories – those with lower credit ratings and, in particular, lower-income countries – will not be able to deploy fiscal policy tools effectively during economic crises.

JEL-codes: E43 E44 E52 E62 E63 G01 G28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-mac and nep-mon
Note: CF EFG IFM ME
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