The Economic Consequences of Government Deficits

The Economic Consequences of Government Deficits
Author: L.H. Meyer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9400966849

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On October 29 and 30, 1982, the Center for the Study of American Business and the Institute for Banking and Financial Markets at Washington "The Economic Consequences of University cosponsored a conference on Government Deficits. " This was the sixth annual Economic Policy Con ference sponsored by the Center, and the first it has cosponsored with the Institute. This book contains the papers and comments delivered at that conference. Recent and prospective large federal deficits have prompted a thorough reconsideration of the political sources and economic consequences of government deficits. The papers in Part I focus on the implications of deficits for monetary growth and inflation, and the papers in Part II consider the effect of deficits on interest rates and capital formation. The papers in Part III deal with the political sources and remedies for the explosive growth in government spending and increased reliance on deficits. The papers in Part I by Alan S. Blinder, Professor of Economics at Princeton University, and Preston J. Miller, Assistant Vice President and Research Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, discuss the relation between monetary growth and deficits and present evidence on the of deficits on inflation and output. A deficit is said to be monetized effects vii viii THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF GOVERNMENT DEFICITS when the Federal Reserve purchases bonds to aid the Treasury in financing the deficit.

Government Spending Effects in a Policy Constrained Environment

Government Spending Effects in a Policy Constrained Environment
Author: Ruoyun Mao
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2020-06-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1513546791

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The theoretical literature generally finds that government spending multipliers are bigger than unity in a low interest rate environment. Using a fully nonlinear New Keynesian model, we show that such big multipliers can decrease when 1) an initial debt-to-GDP ratio is higher, 2) tax burden is higher, 3) debt maturity is longer, and 4) monetary policy is more responsive to inflation. When monetary and fiscal policy regimes can switch, policy uncertainty also reduces spending multipliers. In particular, when higher inflation induces a rising probability to switch to a regime in which monetary policy actively controls inflation and fiscal policy raises future taxes to stabilize government debt, the multipliers can fall much below unity, especially with an initial high debt ratio. Our findings help reconcile the mixed empirical evidence on government spending effects with low interest rates.

Optimal Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Debt Crisis and Management

Optimal Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Debt Crisis and Management
Author: Mr.Cristiano Cantore
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2017-03-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1475590180

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The initial government debt-to-GDP ratio and the government’s commitment play a pivotal role in determining the welfare-optimal speed of fiscal consolidation in the management of a debt crisis. Under commitment, for low or moderate initial government debt-to-GPD ratios, the optimal consolidation is very slow. A faster pace is optimal when the economy starts from a high level of public debt implying high sovereign risk premia, unless these are suppressed via a bailout by official creditors. Under discretion, the cost of not being able to commit is reflected into a quick consolidation of government debt. Simple monetary-fiscal rules with passive fiscal policy, designed for an environment with “normal shocks”, perform reasonably well in mimicking the Ramsey-optimal response to one-off government debt shocks. When the government can issue also long-term bonds–under commitment–the optimal debt consolidation pace is slower than in the case of short-term bonds only, and entails an increase in the ratio between long and short-term bonds.

Fiscal Adjustment for Stability and Growth

Fiscal Adjustment for Stability and Growth
Author: Mr.James Daniel
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 80
Release: 2006-08-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781589065130

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The pamphlet (which updates the 1995 Guidelines for Fiscal Adjustment) presents the IMF’s approach to fiscal adjustment, and focuses on the role that sound government finances play in promoting macroeconomic stability and growth. Structured around five practical questions—when to adjust, how to assess the fiscal position, what makes for successful adjustment, how to carry out adjustment, and which institutions can help—it covers topics such as tax policies, debt sustainability, fiscal responsibility laws, and transparency.

Concepts and Measures of Federal Deficits and Debt and Their Impact on Economic Activity

Concepts and Measures of Federal Deficits and Debt and Their Impact on Economic Activity
Author: Michael J. Boskin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 39
Release: 1987
Genre: Budget deficits
ISBN:

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This paper introduces extensions of the National Income Accounts to include a consistent treatment of consumer durables and government capital in the measurement of consumption and income, and explicitly tests alternative propositions concerning the effects of government financial policy on real economic activity. The paper discusses adjustments to various measures of the budget deficit, national debt, or government "net worth". These include separating government tangible investment from consumption, accounting for government financial assets, inflation adjustments, etc. The most important results estimate consumption functions in which government consumption is subtracted from income. I take this to be more in the spirit of the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis, asking: Given the level of government consumption, would a shift from tax to debt finance alter consumption? The various measures of the deficit produce virtually identical results in their impact on consumption: a tax cut holding government consumption constant, unambiguously increases consumption substantially, about 40 cents on the dollar. Estimating separate coefficients on private wealth, net of government bonds and on private holdings of government bonds, yields a coefficient on government bonds virtually identical to that of regular private wealth, rather than zero as would be the case under Ricardian equivalence. The estimates of the net impact of Social Security wealth are consistent with recent research suggesting that the propensity to consume out of Social Security wealth is about half that of regular private wealth. The estimated impact of changes in net government explicit assets -- the value of government tangible capital over and above regular debt -- again is quite similar to the propensity to consume out of private wealth. This would suggest that government tangible assets substitute for private saving. Reduced form estimates are presented on the impact of federal deficits on the composition of GNP. Various specifica

Guidelines for Public Expenditure Management

Guidelines for Public Expenditure Management
Author: Mr.Jack Diamond
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 84
Release: 1999-07-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781557757876

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Traditionally, economics training in public finances has focused more on tax than public expenditure issues, and within expenditure, more on policy considerations than the more mundane matters of public expenditure management. For many years, the IMF's Public Expenditure Management Division has answered specific questions raised by fiscal economists on such missions. Based on this experience, these guidelines arose from the need to provide a general overview of the principles and practices observed in three key aspects of public expenditure management: budget preparation, budget execution, and cash planning. For each aspect of public expenditure management, the guidelines identify separately the differing practices in four groups of countries - the francophone systems, the Commonwealth systems, Latin America, and those in the transition economies. Edited by Barry H. Potter and Jack Diamond, this publication is intended for a general fiscal, or a general budget, advisor interested in the macroeconomic dimension of public expenditure management.

The Effectiveness of Fiscal Policy in Stimulating Economic Activity

The Effectiveness of Fiscal Policy in Stimulating Economic Activity
Author: Richard Hemming
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2002-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

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This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the effectiveness of fiscal policy. The focus is on the size of fiscal multipliers, and on the possibility that multipliers can turn negative (i.e., that fiscal contractions can be expansionary). The paper concludes that fiscal multipliers are overwhelmingly positive but small. However, there is some evidence of negative fiscal multipliers.

The Liquidation of Government Debt

The Liquidation of Government Debt
Author: Ms.Carmen Reinhart
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 47
Release: 2015-01-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1498338380

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High public debt often produces the drama of default and restructuring. But debt is also reduced through financial repression, a tax on bondholders and savers via negative or belowmarket real interest rates. After WWII, capital controls and regulatory restrictions created a captive audience for government debt, limiting tax-base erosion. Financial repression is most successful in liquidating debt when accompanied by inflation. For the advanced economies, real interest rates were negative 1⁄2 of the time during 1945–1980. Average annual interest expense savings for a 12—country sample range from about 1 to 5 percent of GDP for the full 1945–1980 period. We suggest that, once again, financial repression may be part of the toolkit deployed to cope with the most recent surge in public debt in advanced economies.

From the Debt Crisis Toward Economic Stability

From the Debt Crisis Toward Economic Stability
Author: Liliana Rojas-Suarez
Publisher:
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2006
Genre:
ISBN:

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This paper uses a simple framework based on the government budget constraint to analyze the consistency of macroeconomic policies undertaken in Mexico during the period 1978 to mid-1991. It was found that the interaction between the actual implementation of economic policies and economic agents` perceptions about the sustainability of those policies can account, to a large extent, for the behavior of key macroeconomic variables during the period under study. The paper also highlights the costs of adjustment involved in the most recent Mexican stabilization program arising from concerns about the sustainability of the announced policies.