Presented by Charles I. Plosser, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Fed Policy Forum: “Budgets on the Brink: Perspectives on Debt and Monetary Policy.” December 2, 2011>

Using a sample of the 48 mainland U.S. states for the period 1973-2009, we study the ability of U.S. states to expand their own state employment through the use of state deficit policies. The analysis allows for the facts that U.S. states are part of a wider monetary and economic union with free...