Optimal Fiscal Policy, Limited Commitment and Learning

Optimal Fiscal Policy, Limited Commitment and Learning
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2007
Genre:
ISBN:

Resumen: Esta tesis trata sobre cómo la autoridad fiscal debe fijar los impuestos distorsivos de manera óptima. El capítulo 1 analiza el problema de la política fiscal cuando el gobierno tiene un incentivo a hacer default con su deuda externa. El capítulo 2 trata sobre el problema de la política fiscal cuando los agentes no conocen cómo el gobierno fija las tasas impositivas. La principal conclusión que obtengo es que, en ambos contextos, el resultado de suavidad de las tasas, que es estándar en la literatura de imposición óptima, se rompe. Cuando los gobiernos no tienen una tecnología de compromiso, los impuestos responden a los incentivos de default; cuando los agentes poseen información parcial sobre el modelo subyacente de la economía, los impuestos dependen de sus expectativas sobre los mismos. Abstract: This thesis is about how fiscal authority should optimally set dissorting taxes. Chapter 1 deals with the optimal fiscal policy problem when the government has an incentive to default on external debt. Chapter 2 deals with the optimal fiscal policy problem when households do not know how government sets taxes. The main conclusion I get is that, in each of these two contexts, the tax smoothing result, which is the standars result in the optimal taxation literature, is broken. When governments do not have a commitment technology taxes respond to the incentives to default; when agents have partial information about the underlying economic model, taxes depend on their beliefs about it.

Optimal Policym Heterogeneity and Limited Commitment

Optimal Policym Heterogeneity and Limited Commitment
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2007
Genre:
ISBN:

Resumen Esta tesis contribuye a la literatura de política fiscal y monetaria óptima. Primero analizo cómo el resultado de tasas impositivas suaves, que habitualmente se obtiene en modelos de política fiscal óptima, se ve alterado en un contexto de división internacional de riesgo con compromiso parcial. Encuentro que la presencia de compromiso parcial altera significativamente la dinámica de las variables fiscales, con respecto al caso de compromiso total. La volatilidad de la tasa impositiva aumenta. En segundo lugar, estudio la política fiscal y monetaria en un modelo con shocks idiosincráticos no asegurables a la productividad laboral. Encuentro que, cuando el gobierno es utilitarista, la autoridad monetaria fija la tasa de interés nominal a cero. Los efectos agregados de bienestar son pequeños, mientras que los efectos individuales son grandes. Los beneficiarios de la inflación son agentes pobres con baja productividad, mientras que los agentes de clase media y alta siempre son perdedores. Abstract This thesis contributes to the literature on optimal fiscal and monetary policy. First, I analyze how the tax-smoothing result obtained in models of optimal fiscal policy is altered in a context of international risk sharing with limited commitment. I find that the presence of limited commitment alters substantially the dynamics of the fiscal variables with respect to the full commitment case. In particular, the volatility of the tax rate increases. Second, I study the optimal monetary and fiscal policy mix in a model in which agents are subject to idiosyncratic uninsurable shocks to their labor productivity. I find that, for a utilitarian government, the monetary policy-maker sets nominal interest rates to zero. Although the aggregate welfare costs of inflation are small, individual costs and benefits are large. Net winners from inflation are poor, less productive agents, while middle-class and rich households are always net losers.

NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2005

NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2005
Author: Kenneth S. Rogoff
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 479
Release: 2006-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0262072726

The 20th NBER Macroeconomics Annual, covering questions at the cutting edge of macroeconomics that are central to current policy debates.

Optimal Fiscal Policy Under Limited Commitment

Optimal Fiscal Policy Under Limited Commitment
Author: Yi-Li Chien
Publisher:
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2006
Genre: Fiscal policy
ISBN: 9780542881633

This dissertation studies optimal fiscal policy in an economy with idiosyncratic labor productivity shocks and endogenous borrowing constraints. In contrast with the well-known result of zero capital tax by Chamley (1996), our main finding is that optimal capital tax rate should be positive regardless of market completeness. Alvarez and Jermann (2000) show that in an economy with complete market and borrowing constraints, the market discount rate is higher than preference discount rate. If the government is an unconstrained investor, as in Aiyagari (1996), then the golden rule holds in the long run. As a consequence, the positive capital income taxation is needed to bring the pre-tax capital return back to the rate of time preference. Moreover, by the introduction of endogenous borrowing constraints, the government can use a labor tax as a policy tool to relax the constraints and increase social welfare. In our model, the autarky value is composed of the discounted utilities from the labor incomes. The higher the labor tax, the lower the autarky value. Hence it slacks the endogenous borrowing constraints, Although the increase in labor taxation leads to distortion in production, it effectively helps to relax the borrowing constraints. The Ramsey planner takes this additional benefit of labor taxation into account in a way that balances the social cost and benefit. We interpret this additional benefit as a new role for labor taxation. The later part of this dissertation considers a model of a limited role of the government. We prove that the optimal tax rate on capital income should be positive in steady state and should be increasing over time provided that full risk-sharing is not feasible. Moreover, we show that the optimal tax rate are potentially much bigger than one might expect.

Fiscal Policy and Long-Term Growth

Fiscal Policy and Long-Term Growth
Author: International Monetary Fund
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2015-04-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1498344658

This paper explores how fiscal policy can affect medium- to long-term growth. It identifies the main channels through which fiscal policy can influence growth and distills practical lessons for policymakers. The particular mix of policy measures, however, will depend on country-specific conditions, capacities, and preferences. The paper draws on the Fund’s extensive technical assistance on fiscal reforms as well as several analytical studies, including a novel approach for country studies, a statistical analysis of growth accelerations following fiscal reforms, and simulations of an endogenous growth model.

Fiscal Policy in Debt Constrained Economies

Fiscal Policy in Debt Constrained Economies
Author: Mark Aguiar
Publisher:
Total Pages: 53
Release: 2011
Genre: Debts, Public
ISBN:

We study optimal fiscal policy in a small open economy (SOE) with sovereign and private default risk. The SOE's government uses linear taxation to fund exogenous expenditures and uses public debt to inter-temporally allocate tax distortions. We characterize a class of environments in which the tax on labor goes to zero in the long run, while the tax on capital income may be non-zero, reversing the standard prediction of the Ramsey tax literature. The zero labor tax is an optimal long run outcome if the private agents are impatient relative to the international interest rate and the economy is subject to sovereign debt constraints. The front loading of labor taxes allows the economy to build a large (aggregate) debt position in the presence of limited commitment. We show that a similar result holds in a closed economy with imperfect inter-generational altruism -- National Bureau of Economic Research web site.