Environment, Growth and Fiscal and Monetary Policies

This paper investigates whether monetary and fiscal policies, such as lump-sum taxes and monetization of pubic deficit, have environmental impacts. We address this question extending the neoclassical monetary growth model. We include a state equation for natural resources, and consider natural resources as an input in the production function. Fiscal policy, through public spending, always has environmental impact. Monetary policy affects the environment if money is considered as a device to reduce transactions costs or as necessary to buy goods according to cash-in-advance models. However, the qualitative impact of both policies on the environment cannot be determined. All results depend on the effect of capital on the natural resources dynamics. The model provides a framework which relates public spending and inflation with environment.