Rational expectations are often used as an argument against policy activism, as they may undermine or neutralize the policymaker’s actions. Although this sometimes happens, rational expectations do not always imply policy invariance or ineffectiveness. In fact, in certain circumstances...

This paper documents and explains the positive comovement between the external and budget deficits of developing countries for which post-1960 time-series data are available. First, the estimates indicate that the empirical covariance between these deficits is always positive and is...

Relatively little empirical evidence exists about countries' external adjustment to changes in fiscal policy and, in particular, to changes in taxes. This paper addresses this question by measuring the effects of tax and government spending shocks on the current account and the real exchange...