The moral of public debt

his paper deals with the moral dimension of the public debt and its theoretical reference is constitutional economics. It is argued that the main reason to the existence of any moral link between public debt and ethics is the transference of costs to future generations. Firstly, the article explores James Buchanan’s public debt analysis. Secondly, is described in the paper the neoclassical point of view about the matter. The main purpose here is to establish, starting from the positive point of view and passing through-out a normative one, the role of a deontological analysis of the debt burden. After this, I make the linkage between institutions, incentives’ schemes and debt.

KEYWORDS:
Public debt; public debt structure; constitutional economics; public choice; political economy