This paper considers the implications of complementarity in private production and constraints on government for optimal fiscal policy. Using an endogenous growth model with public finance, it derives three central results which modify findings in the literature under standard assumptions....

This paper studies the aggregate and distributional implications of Markov-perfect tax-spending policy in a neoclassical growth model with capitalists and workers. Focusing on the long run, our main findings are: (i) it is optimal for a benevolent government, which cares equally about its...

Episodes of sovereign default feature three key empirical regularities in connection with the banking systems of the countries where they occur: (i) sovereign defaults and banking crises tend to happen together, (ii) commercial banks have substantial holdings of government debt, and (iii)...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the optimal fiscal policy problem including public investment as an endogenous decision. We set a general equilibrium model, calibrated with Spanish data, where the public capital stock is an additional input. We obtain that the Spanish public...

This paper undertakes a normative investigation of the quantitative properties of optimal tax smoothing in a business cycle model with state contingent debt, capital-skill complementarity and endogenous skill acquisition under technology and public expenditure shocks. We find that skilled and...

This paper explores the qualitative and quantitative implications of optimal tax- ation in a developing economy when economic growth is endogenously determined. We di¤erentiate this class of economies from a developed economy in two aspects: 1. the informal sector is quantitatively signi…cant...

The paper analyzes optimal fiscal policy in an overlapping generations model with two-period lived households. The government must choose tax rates and borrowing to finance an exogenous stream of expenditures. It cannot commit to future policies, so announced policies that are not time...

We study optimal government spending in a business cycle model with frictional unemployment. The Ramsey optimal policy is contrasted with a reference policy which would be first best in a frictionless economy. Results are: the Ramsey policy i) implies a higher steady state ratio of government...

This paper assesses the optimality of U.S. fiscal policy from 1960 to 2010. With this purpose, we present a tractable neoclassical economy with a benevolent government and characterize time-consistent, optimal fiscal policy. We then compare the model's prescriptions for income tax rates and...

We show that in an exogenous growth model with informal economy calibrated to Bulgarian data under the progressive taxation regime (1993-2007), the economy exhibits equilibrium indeterminacy due to the presence of an unofficial production. These results are in line with the findings in Benhabib...