The Ricardian equivalence proposition for public debt in my 1974 JPE paper is related to the discussions in Ricardo's Funding System, Smith's Wealth of Nations, and a number of treatments in macroeconomics from the 1950s to the 1970s. Useful extensions of the basic invariance proposition involve...

Persistent budget deficits have increased economists' interest in theories and evidence about fiscal policy. This paper develops the Ricardian approach and contrasts it with standard models. The discussion considers from major theoretical objections to Ricardian equivalence-finite lifetimes,...

The paper develops a model in which targeting of the nominal interest rate is a reasonable guide for monetary policy. Expected real interest rates and output are exogenous with respect to monetary variables, and the central bank ends up influencing nominal interest rates by altering expected...