The paper analyses the effectiveness of fiscal tools at the zero lower bound (ZLB). A non-linear New Keynesian DSGE model with occasionally binding constraints on monetary policy and borrowing is applied. When the ZLB binds in a liquidity trap, government spending becomes more effective in...

Fiscal multipliers decrease nonlinearly as the private sector anticipates a higher likelihood of NIRP in the future. While the on-impact fiscal multiplier at the ZLB is above the unity without any expectation about NIRP in the future, it falls below 1 when the agents expect the economy to switch...

Fiscal policy and public debt may be required to maintain full employment and avoid secular stagnation. This conclusion emerges from a range of different models, including OLG specifications and stock-flow consistent (post-) Keynesian models. One of the determinants of the required long-run debt...

This paper makes three main points. Fiscal policy, first, may be needed in the long run to maintain full employment and avoid secular stagnation. If fiscal policy is used in this way, second, the long-run debt ratio depends (i) inversely on the rate of growth, (ii) inversely on government...