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Deficit Control

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

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Synonyms

Budget balance; Budgetary control; Budget rules; Fiscal governance; Fiscal responsibility; Fiscal rules; Public budgeting; Public deficit

Definition

A government deficit occurs when public expenditures are greater than revenues. Running a deficit essentially means that the government resorts to borrowing as to maintain higher spending without increasing taxes. This leads to the accumulation of public debt.

Introduction

There are different types of government deficits and methods of measuring them. A deficit, for example, may be caused by a temporary shortfall in revenues or may occur during economic downturns because of gross domestic product (GDP) reduction. Additionally, government deficits occur when tax revenues are insufficient to finance public investments (e.g., building roads, hospitals, schools, etc.), and the consequent imbalance must be covered by debt.

However, governments can intentionally choose to run systematic deficits. In some cases, this choice is related to...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, Finance, Management and Law, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Enrico Guarini

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  1. Enrico Guarini
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Correspondence to Enrico Guarini .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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Guarini, E. (2016). Deficit Control. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2317-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2317-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

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