STRUCTURAL PUBLIC BALANCE ADJUSTMENT AND RELATIVE POVERTY IN THE EUROZONE COUNTRIES: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

The aim of the paper is to evaluate, through panel data dynamic models, the effects of structural public balance adjustment on relative poverty in 16 Eurozone countries from 2005 till 2013. The estimates are conducted by using the mean group (MG), the pooled mean group (PMG) and the dynamic fixed effects (DFE) estimators. The first two yield estimates of the long-run coefficients without the implausible assumption of identical dynamics in each country allowing to detecting a stable relationship even in presence of reduced explanatory variables. They all – through the error correction form – allow for considering the relation between the variables in their level and the dynamic of adjustment in the short-run. All the techniques generate outcomes supporting the conclusion that fiscal retrenchments increase relative poverty both in the short and in the long-run.