The 1998 dataset widened austerity evidence to fifty-one cases

Evidence

This time, however, to make the set of cases bigger, what constitutes a significant expansionary adjustment is now defined as a 2 percent improvement in the cyclically adjusted primary balance over two years. This yields a universe of fifty-one cases, nineteen of which are successful, and twenty-three of which are expansionary. The results of the econometrics confirm these claims. You get more bang for the buck when you cut in a slump, almost all contractionary expansions are the result of expenditure cuts, and now “successful adjustments experience a ‘spectacular’ investment boom during and after” the cuts. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 466