This paper offers a critique of the macroeconomic policy stance of the U.K. Conservative administration from a policy optimization perspective. Attention is focused on three particular issues which, it is argued, require clarification in the medium term financial strategy. The first concerns the...

The potential instability of a fixed monetary rule combined with automatic fixed stabilisers is a well-established feature of closed economy IS/LM models with wealth effects and asset accumulation. This paper examines the stability issue in a general open economy macromodel with alternative...

Underlying labor-productivity growth is estimated for each of the G7 countries over the last two decades. Underlying productivity is proxied.by a stochastic trend, which is estimated using the Kalman filter. This technique allows the data to determine when changes in growth have occurred and is...

We examine the impact of different degrees of fiscal feedback on debt in an economy with nominal rigidities where monetary policy is optimal. We look at the extent to which different degrees of fiscal feedback enhance or detract from the ability of the monetary authorities to stabilize output...