This paper explores how fiscal policy can affect medium- to long-term growth. It identifies the main channels through which fiscal policy can influence growth and distills practical lessons for policymakers. The particular mix of policy measures, however, will depend on country-specific conditions, capacities, and preferences. The paper draws on the Fund’s extensive technical assistance on fiscal reforms as well as several analytical studies, including a novel approach for country studies, a statistical analysis of growth accelerations following fiscal reforms, and simulations of an endogenous growth model.

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the effectiveness of fiscal policy. The focus is on the size of fiscal multipliers, and on the possibility that multipliers can turn negative (i.e., that fiscal contractions can be expansionary). The paper concludes that fiscal multipliers are overwhelmingly positive but small. However, there is some evidence of negative fiscal multipliers.

The recent recession has brought fiscal policy back to the forefront, with economists and policy makers struggling to reach a consensus on highly political issues like tax rates and government spending. At the heart of the debate are fiscal multipliers, whose size and sensitivity determine the power of such policies to influence economic growth. Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis focuses on the effects of fiscal stimuli and increased government spending, with contributions that consider the measurement of the multiplier effect and its size. In the face of uncertainty over the sustainability of recent economic policies, further contributions to this volume discuss the merits of alternate means of debt reduction through decreased government spending or increased taxes. A final section examines how the short-term political forces driving fiscal policy might be balanced with aspects of the long-term planning governing monetary policy. A direct intervention in timely debates, Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis offers invaluable insights about various responses to the recent financial crisis.

Foundations of Supply-Side Economics: Theory and Evidence is composed of a series of papers containing both theoretical and empirical analyses of a set of issues in government fiscal policy. The type of analysis employed in the book is standard neoclassical economics, and this analysis is used to study the macroeconomic incentive effects of taxation. The book contains contributions that cover the analysis of the effects of taxes imposed purely for generating revenues; the process of capital formation; and an attempt to integrate supply-side analysis into a traditional macroeconomic framework. Reports on the empirical evidence on taxation and economic activity and the estimation of a small macroeconomic model of the United States for the postwar period; description of a method of calculating effective marginal tax rates on factor incomes using available U.S. data; and the estimation of the effect of fiscal policy on private investment in plant and equipment are presented as well. Economists will find the book highly insightful.

Macroeconomic policy is one of the most important policy domains, and the tools of macroeconomics are among the most valuable for policy makers. Yet there has been, up to now, a wide gulf between the level at which macroeconomics is taught at the undergraduate level and the level at which it is practiced. At the same time, doctoral-level textbooks are usually not targeted at a policy audience, making advanced macroeconomics less accessible to current and aspiring practitioners. This book, born out of the Masters course the authors taught for many years at the Harvard Kennedy School, fills this gap. It introduces the tools of dynamic optimization in the context of economic growth, and then applies them to a wide range of policy questions – ranging from pensions, consumption, investment and finance, to the most recent developments in fiscal and monetary policy. It does so with the requisite rigor, but also with a light touch, and an unyielding focus on their application to policy-making, as befits the authors’ own practical experience. Advanced Macroeconomics: An Easy Guide is bound to become a great resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate students, and practitioners alike.

This is a book on deterministic and stochastic Growth Theory and the computational methods needed to produce numerical solutions. Exogenous and endogenous growth models are thoroughly reviewed. Special attention is paid to the use of these models for fiscal and monetary policy analysis. Modern Business Cycle Theory, the New Keynesian Macroeconomics, the class of Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium models, can be all considered as special cases of models of economic growth, and they can be analyzed by the theoretical and numerical procedures provided in the textbook. Analytical discussions are presented in full detail. The book is self contained and it is designed so that the student advances in the theoretical and the computational issues in parallel. EXCEL and Matlab files are provided on an accompanying website to illustrate theoretical results as well as to simulate the effects of economic policy interventions.

Foreword by Guido Cozzi (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland)Advanced Macroeconomics covers selected topics in advanced macroeconomics at undergraduate level and bridges the gap between intermediate macroeconomics for undergraduates and advanced macroeconomics for postgraduates. By building on materials in intermediate macroeconomics textbooks and covering the mathematics of some classic dynamic general-equilibrium models, this book will give undergraduate students a firm appreciation of modern developments in macroeconomics. This book examines the implications of government policies (such as fiscal policy, monetary policy and innovation policy) and devotes several chapters to economic growth, covering the ideas for which Paul Romer was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2018.Dynamic general equilibrium is the foundation of modern macroeconomics. Chapter 1 begins with a simple static model to demonstrate the concept of general equilibrium. Chapters 2 to 4 cover the neoclassical growth model, exploring the effects of exogenous changes in technology: an important source of business cycle fluctuations. Chapters 5 to 7 use the neoclassical growth model to explore the effects of fiscal policy instruments such as government spending, labour income tax and capital income tax. Chapter 8 develops a simple New Keynesian model to analyse the effects of monetary policy. Chapter 9 begins the analysis of economic growth by reviewing the Solow growth model. Chapters 10 to 12 present the Ramsey model and introduce different market structures to the model to lay down the foundation of the Romer model. Chapter 13 incorporates an R&D sector into the Ramsey model with a monopolistically competitive market structure to develop the Romer model of endogenous technological change. Chapters 14 to 15 examine the implications of the Romer model. Chapter 16 concludes this book by presenting the Schumpeterian growth model and examining its different implications from the Romer model.