Public Finance and Economic Growth: The Case of Holland in the 17th Century
Mardi | 2010-12-07 B103 Oscar GELDERBLOM – Joost JONKER – Cyrille PIATECKI – Christian RIETSCH The debate over the institutions that link economic growth to public finance tends todisregard the need for savings to finance growing public debt. We analyze Holland’s 17thcentury public debt and find that its structure, size, and issuing rates were determined byinvestors’ preferences, themselves driven by economic growth, wealth accumulation, andchanging private investment opportunities. Savings generated by economic growthenabled the government to build up a huge […]