Alberto Alesina on Fiscal Policy and Austerity

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2016

⏱️ 63 minutes

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Summary

Alberto Alesina of Harvard University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his research on fiscal policy and austerity. Alesina's research shows that spending cuts to reduce budget deficits are less harmful than tax increases. Alesina discusses the intuition behind this empirical finding and discusses other issues such as Greece's financial situation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:09.2	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:13.7	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find
0:18.7	links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.7	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done
0:25.8	going back to 2006.
0:28.2	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:30.7	We'd love to hear from you.
0:34.5	Today is March 25th, 2016, and my guest is Alberto Alicina, the Nathaniel Robe's professor
0:40.6	of political economy at Harvard University.
0:42.7	He has written extensively on physical policy, austerity, and a wide range of other topics,
0:47.8	including culture and institutions.
0:49.6	Alberto, welcome to Econ Talk.
0:51.8	Thank you.
0:52.8	Thank you for having me.
0:54.3	Now we're going to start with physical policy.
0:55.9	We're going to see where we end up, but it's an issue that a lot of people are very interested
0:59.6	in.
1:00.6	It's an issue that has been in the news as well as economic conversation for the last really
1:05.8	five years and a lot of intensity.
1:08.4	So I want to start with a seemingly simple question, which is what is austerity?
1:13.7	austerity, it's not a simple question because the world of austerity has been used in many,
	...

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