This paper investigates the average impact of government debt on long-term GDP growth in four Western Balkan countries of Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, and Bosnia & Herzegovina over a 23-year period from 1997-2019. It examines the use of financing through debt on short- and long-term economic growth for these economies using a dynamic common correlated effects model with heterogeneous coefficients. The model's methodology estimation mimics Chudik and Pesaran and the pooled mean group estimator is

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... used. The conclusion of this study, with respect to the average impact of government debt on long-term GDP growth in the four Western Balkan countries, is consistent with the literature in that in the long-term external debt does not contribute to long-term growth and, in fact, tends to have a negative impact. The COIVD-19 pandemic has exacerbated the long-term growth outlook for the four Western Balkan countries. Received: 21 December 2021 / Accepted: 22 February 2022 / Published: 5 March 2022