If discretionary monetary policy implies an inflation bias, monetary unification boosts the accumulation of public debt. The additional debt accumulation is welfare reducing only if governments are sufficiently myopic. In the presence of myopic governments, debt ceilings play a useful role in...

This paper explores how fiscal and monetary policy interact if commitment and access to lump-sum taxation are limited. We analyze how equilibrium outcomes for inflation, employment, and public spending are affected by the structural features of an economy, such as money holdings, outstanding...

This paper explores how decentralized, national fiscal policies interact with a common monetary policy in a monetary union. We show that fiscal policy plays a more important ro le in stabilizing country-specific shocks than with national monetary policies. Whereas monetary u nification with an...

In order to explore the optimal taxation of low-skilled labor, we extend the standard model of optimal non-linear income taxation in the presence of quasi-linear preferences in leisure by allowing for involuntary unemployment, job search, an exogenous welfare benefit, and a non-utilitarian...

This paper explores the effects of an environmental tax reform on pollution, economic growth and welfare in an endogenous growth model with pre-existing tax distortions. We find that a shift in the tax mix away from output towards pollution may raise economic growth through two channels. The...