This paper uses the old-Keynesian representative agent model developed in Farmer (2010b) to answer two questions: 1) do increased government purchases crowd out private consumption? 2) do increased government purchases reduce unemployment? Farmer compared permanent tax financed expenditure paths...

This paper uses the old-Keynesian representative agent model developed in Farmer (2010b) to answer two questions: 1) do increased government purchases crowd out private consumption? 2) do increased government purchases reduce unemployment? Farmer compared permanent tax financed expenditure paths...

This paper reconsiders the case for the use of fiscal policy based on a "functional finance" approach that advocates the use of fiscal policy to secure high levels of demand in the context of private aggregate demand, which would otherwise be too low. This "functional finance" view means that...

Recent developments in macroeconomic policy, in terms of both theory and practice, have elevated monetary policy while downgrading fiscal policy. Monetary policy has focused on the setting of interest rates as the key policy instrument, along with the adoption of inflation targets and the use of...

It is often asserted that, whatever role Keynesian policies may have played in underpinning the long post-war boom, those policies are no longer relevant. In contrast this paper seeks to reassert the need for Keynesian policies in order to secure full employment. In doing so, as will be seen...

In this paper we seek first to set out the economic analysis that underpins the ideas of what has been termed the "third way." The explicit mention of the "third way" is much diminished since the early days of the Blair government in the UK and the Schroeder government in Germany. We argue that...