We extend Ruge-Murcia (2003, 2004) to weigh inflation and output and show that empirical evidence supports an asymmetric preference hypothesis for output. We also find evidence that the monetary authority targets potential output in parallel to Barro and Gordon (1983).

Surico (2007) showed that the Federal Reserve Bank (FED) asymmetric preferences for the output gap disappeared during recent times. We show that this result is sensitive to the starting date chosen for the regressions. Using a starting date of 1984:01 or later, we find that the hypothesis of the...

This paper investigates privately and socially optimal patterns of economic development in a two-sector endogenous growth model with clean and dirty goods. We consider a second-best fiscal policy framework in which distortionary taxes jointly influence economic growth and environmental quality....

This paper investigates optimal fiscal policy in a static multisector model. A Ramsey type planner chooses tax rates on each good type as well as spending levels on each good type subject to an exogenous total expenditure constraint. It is shown that, like taxes, government spending policy has...

We examine the effects of tax reform in an endogenous growth with two types of useful public expenditures. The optimal fiscal policy shifts the tax base to private consumption and generally requires a change in the size of government. If a tax reform holds the size of government fixed to satisfy...