Public Debt: Its Relationship with Public Expenditure and Election Periods. An Approach to Latin America 1993-2018

A significant increase in the amount of public debt in Latin America has been seen in recent years. Using the methodology of feasible generalized least squares for panel data, this article found that the public expenditure, the real exchange rate, the price index and imports are the main contributors to the accumulation of debt. Although it is possible to check that government expenditure is the biggest trigger, it also shows that periods of presidential elections were a significant factor in the formation of public debt in Latin American countries.