Does Rising Debt Undermine Future Growth? Evidence from the EU

Aim/Purpose – The main purpose of the paper is to understand the nature of the relationship between rising public debt and future economic growth. Moreover, the article aims at determining whether the character of this relationship is the same or different when considering “new” and “old” members of the European Union.

Design/methodology/approach – The abovementioned issues are analysed using two approaches: the introductory comparative analysis (Reinhart-Rogoff approach) and econometric methods (pooled regression, between estimator, cross-country regression and fixed-effects regression). The sample considered consists of EU countries (as of 1^st January 2020) and various economic, demographic and societal data coming from the period 1995-2019.