题目：Financial Frictions and the Optimal Quantity of Government Debt

时间：2026年6月17日 14:00-15:30

地点：后主楼1722

主讲人：赵开 教授 美国康涅狄格文理学院

主持人：王言 助理教授 必赢线路检测3003经管学院

摘要：

We study the optimal level of government debt in an incomplete-markets model featuring financially constrained firms and dynastic households subject to idiosyncratic earnings risk. In contrast to the existing literature, government debt in our framework does not significantly crowd out private capital, as firms’ investment decisions are primarily governed by financial frictions. As a result, the model predicts a higher optimal level of government debt relative to standard models that abstract from such frictions. We calibrate the model to the Chinese economy, where the production sector is characterized by substantial financial constraints. Our results indicate that the optimal level of government debt is considerably higher than China’s current debt level. This finding suggests that concerns regarding China’s government debt may be overstated. However, counterfactual experiments show that increasing China’s current debt level to its optimal level would yield only modest welfare gains, as the welfare profile is relatively flat in that region. In contrast, eliminating government debt altogether would result in a significant welfare loss.

演讲嘉宾简介：

赵开，经济学博士，现任美国康涅狄格大学（University of Connecticut）经济系终身教授及研究生部主任，国际经济学期刊《International Studies of Economics》共同主编及《China & World Economy》副主编。他曾任美联储访问经济学家，南加大商学院访问教授。赵开教授的主要研究领域为宏观经济学和公共财政，长期关注收入与财富分配问题，养老保险和医疗保险等社会保障制度对实体经济的影响。他的研究发表在包括国际顶尖学术期刊Review of Economic Studies，Journal of Monetary Economics，International Economic Review，Review of Economic Dynamics，European Economic Review，Journal of Economic Dynamics & Control和Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization等国际一流经济学期刊。