Is there Ricardian neutrality in some countries?
Ricardian neutrality is the behaviour of households or companies that increase their savings rate when the fiscal deficit increases. This is because they expect a correction of the fiscal deficit in the future that will require an increase in the tax burden or a reduction in public spending, developments against which they are protecting themselves by saving more today. We look at the situations of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Japan, and we seek to determine in which of these countries we see signs of Ricardian neutrality, i.e. an increase in household or corporate savings when the fiscal deficit increases. We see that the national private savings rate increases when the fiscal deficit is higher in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and Japan, but not in Germany. In Spain and Italy, it is the corporate savings (profit) rate that increases with the fiscal deficit, but not the household savings rate.