We study optimal fiscal and monetary policy in an environment where explicit frictions give rise to valued money, making money essential in the sense that it expands the set of feasible trades. Our main results are in stark contrast to the prescriptions of earlier flexible-price Ramsey models....

We analyze the long-run growth effects of automation in the canonical overlapping generations framework. While automation implies constant returns to capital within this model class (even in the absence of technological progress), we show that it does not have the potential to lead to positive...

Government usually tends to have two options. They can either pursue a tax revenue maximizing strategy or a growth maximizing strategy. The two approached do not necessarily go hand in hand. This paper derives and empirically estimates a simple laissez faire optimal taxation model from the...

This work analyses the evolution of the tributary structure and the constitution and organisation of the Brazilian revenue system in the long period from 1889 to 2009. It aims to identify, on one hand, the functions attributed to fiscal policy and to taxation, as well as how these State`s...