Using a two-country DSGE model, we analyze the spillover effects of fiscal policy in a monetary union. Based on a non-Walrasian labor market and a detailed fiscal sector, our analysis focuses on the relative cross-border effects of different kinds of fiscal instruments (expenditure side and...

Fiscal councils now exist in a number of countries.  This paper first considers the extent of deficit bias, potential explanations for it, and how independent institutions could help reduce it.  Are fiscal councils complements to or substitutes for fiscal rules, and why do none at  present...

Recent attempts to incorporate optimal fiscal policy into New Keynesian models subject to nominal inertia, have tended to assume that policy makers are benevolent and have access to a commitment technology.  A separate literature, on the New Political Economy, has focused on real economies...

In this paper, we use a two country stochastic “new open economy macroeconomics” model with sticky wages and imperfect competition where public spending and private consumption appear in a non-separable way in individual preferences. We use this setup to define optimal fiscal policy in the...

In a two-period model with distortionay taxes and public investment, we re-examine the interaction between monetary policy transparency and fiscal bias. We find that the optimal choices of tax rate and public investment allow eliminating the effects of fiscal bias and hence neutralize the impact...