This policy brief will assess the underlying problems with the United States' budgetary process and the issues that arise as a result of the country's current fiscal trajectory. We explore the role that spending rules play in restraining the growth of government spending wherever they are...

To rein in fiscal deficits, policymakers traditionally raise taxes or cut public spending. However, many economists worry that those policies can slow down the economy. By contrast, faster economic growth — without changing taxes or spending — reduces the deficit on two fronts, by raising...

In this policy brief, we review the literature on the debt-growth relationship since the publication of “Growth in a Time of Debt” to evaluate the claim that high government-debt-to-GDP ratios have negative or significant (or both) effects on the growth rate of an economy. In addition, we...

This paper reviews the empirical literature to determine which forms of fiscal consolidation successfully reduce debt-to-GDP ratios and impact economic performance. We perform a cross-country analysis of fiscal adjustments in 26 democracies for 1995–2018 and find that expenditure-based fiscal...

In this policy brief we discuss what economists know (and don’t know) about fiscal spending multipliers. We then review the growing economic literature on the relationship between the fiscal position and the size of the fiscal multiplier. In addition, we explore the inflationary risks that...