We derive the optimal fiscal policy for a government that is committed to honoring its debt but faces investors which fear a sovereign default. We assume that investors are able to learn from new evidence, as in Marcet and Sargent (1989), so that they can gradually correct their overly...

The paper is a contribution to the study of the redistributive impact of public sector intervention across living generations. We aim to work on a comprehensive approach, so that reforms involving several taxation and spending programmes, possibly implemented over several years, may be assessed....

The paper examines the development of Italy's public finances after the consolidation period 1992-97, which secured participation in the European Monetary Union from the outset. The quot;structuralquot; developments in the main budgetary components are assessed, excluding the effects of the...

Public debts in the euro area have increased sharply due to the economic crisis, and remain at historically high levels in several countries. In a monetary union, high-debt members represent a permanent threat to financial stability, as they are subject – even if fundamentally solvent – to...

This paper analyses the theoretical and policy implications of assuming firm-specific lumpy investment behaviour by firms and compares such implications to those occurring when adopting different investment specifications in a new-Keynesian framework. We develop numerical simulations of the...

This paper determines the standard of living reductions that young, middle aged, and older households would experience were the U.S. government to cut Social Security benefits (but not taxes) to deal with its well documented (see Gokhale and Smetters, 2005) long-term fiscal crisis. To determine...