The COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 reignited longstanding debates over the macroeconomic implications of rising public debt. Governments around the world responded to the crisis with expansive fiscal measures, which drove sovereign debt to new heights, particularly in the United States. These developments catalyzed renewed academic interest in the relationship between public debt and economic growth, prompting a proliferation of empirical studies across a variety of economies and methodological approache. […]