This paper discusses several aspects of the medium-term orientation of OECD countries' economic policies in the 1980s, concentrating on monetary and fiscal instruments. The developments that led to the adoption of such a "medium-term strategy", and the apparent analytical rationale for it, are...

This paper first gives a brief account of the main changes introduced by OECD governments in their capital income tax rules during the 1980s with respect to both the corporate and personal sectors. It then examines the evolution of effective capital taxation, using a summary measure ("tax...

The aim of this paper is to provide an assessment of the medium-term financial strategies operating in and available to OECD economies. Three issues are discussed: first, the rationale for the increasing adoption of medium-term budgetary and monetary objectives; second, the appropriate criteria...

During the past decade, the formulation of fiscal policy has been increasingly founded on medium-term considerations associated with public debt and economic efficiency. In this regard, this paper, and the ones by Olivier Blanchard and Edward Gramlich in the same Working Paper Series, considers...

This paper examines the problems raised by the recent sharp increases in the ratio of public debt to GNP in most OECD Member countries. When interest rates exceed growth rates, this development appears as a symptom of instability in public finances. The paper also analyses the evolution of...