The Effect of Public Debt and Productivity on Economic Growth in Iran

The continuous increase in government spending leads to widen the fiscal deficit gaps and that force government to borrow from internal and external resources. Due to various problems faced by the economy over recent years in Iran, It is usual that a part of government incomes and expenditures covers by the budget deficit. The main economic consequence of the high level of budget deficits is heavy public debt, which often would affect on economic growth. This study examines the impact of public debt on economic growth in the period 1980-2012. In this regard, by using the vector autoregressive model, we investigate long-run equilibrium relationship between public debts and economic growth. The results of the error correction model indicate that export and total factor productivity in short-term have a positive and significant effect on economic growth. However, domestic debt in short-term and long-term has a negative effect and external debt in long-term has a positive effect on economic growth.