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This paper discusses how to enhance automatic stabilizers without increasing the size of government. We distinguish between permanent changes in the parameters of the tax and expenditure system (e.g., changes in tax progressivity) that will enhance the traditional automatic stabilizer, and temporary changes triggered by certain economic developments (e.g., tax measures targeted at credit and liquidity constrained households, triggered during a severe downturn). We argue that, with some exceptions, the latter are preferable as they can be implemented with lower disruptions in other fiscal policy goals (e.g., economic efficiency). Moreover, countries should also avoid introducing procyclicality as a result of fiscal rules, as these would offset the effect of existing automatic stabilizers.
Drawing on the most prominent research in the field, this timely book offers bold new fiscal policies that can complement current automatic stabilizers and counter-cyclical monetary policy to help combat recessions. Dr. Seidman argues for an independent fiscal policy board or the Federal Reserve to decide changes in the magnitude of Congress's fiscal policy package of stimulus or restraint, with recommendations going into effect immediately, subject only to Congressional override.
This paper measures the size of automatic fiscal revenue stabilizers and evaluates their role in Latin America. It introduces a relatively rich tax structure into a dynamic, stochastic, multi-sector small open economy inhabited by rule-of-thumb consumers (who consume their wages and do not save or borrow) and Ricardian households to study the stabilizing properties of different parameters of the tax code. The economy faces multiple sources of business cycle fluctuations: (1) world capital market shocks; (2) world business cycle shocks; (3) terms of trade shocks; (4) government spending shocks; and (5) nontradable and (6) tradable sector technology innovations. Calibrating the model economy to a typical Latin American economy allows the evaluation of its ability to mimic the region's observed business cycle frequency properties and the assessment of the quantitative relationship between tax code parameters, business cycle forcing variables, and business cycle behavior. The model captures many of the salient features of Latin America's business cycle facts and finds that the degree of smoothing provided by the automatic revenue stabilizers-described by various properties of the tax system-is negligible. Simulation results seem to suggest an invariance property for middle-income countries: the amplitude of the business cycle is independent of the tax structure. And government size-measured by the GDP ratio of government spending-plays the role of an automatic stabilizer, but its smoothing effect is very weak.
Examines the effects of the economy on the gov¿t. budget as well as the effects of the budget on the economy. Provides measures of the effects of automatic stabilizers on budget outcomes at the fed., state and local levels. At the fed. level, the deficit increases about 0.35% of GDP for each 1 percentage point deviation of actual GDP relative to potential GDP. For state and local gov¿t., the deficit increases by 0.1% of GDP. Examines the response of the economy to the automatic stabilizers by comparing the response to aggregate demand shocks. The authors find that federal policy actions are somewhat counter-cyclical while state and local policy actions have been somewhat pro-cyclical. Illustrations. This is a print on demand publication.
Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1.0, University of applied sciences, Munich, language: English, abstract: The object of this study is to analyze the influence of fiscal policy, in particular of the public expenditure, on the stabilization of business cycle. Moreover, the functional principle of automatic stabilizers and the impact of fiscal stabilizers on businesses are studied. The condition for a steady economic development is achievement of stability targets like full employment of production factors, monetary stability, balancing of payment as well as equilibrium of foreign trade. To counteract the economic fluctuations government can apply two stability tools: the fiscal and the monetary policy. These both policies affect the aggregate demand and contribute to stabilize short-run economic fluctuations. The principle of the fiscal policy is an adjustment of public expenditure and public revenue (taxes) in according to the economic situation. A higher public expenditure leads to an increasing of the aggregate demand. The total change in GDP is depending on two opposite macroeconomic effects: the multiplier and the crowding-out effect. The multiplier effect results, that the total change in demand as well as in GDP can be a multiple of the initial public expenditure. Contrary, the crowding-out effect leads to a reduced aggregate demand due to the aligned increasing of interest rate. The impact of public expenditure on GDP depends on whether the multiplier effect or the crowding-out effect is stronger. An opportunity to avoid problems of lags in implementation by using of the fiscal policy is automatic stabilizers, e.g. tax system and government spending. They enable an automatic adjustment of the aggregate demand without additional actions or interventions of policymakers. The fiscal stabilizers have a positive impact on various businesses, but with different degrees. It could be summarized, that the fiscal policy affects both the aggregate demand and the aggregate supply. By means of fiscal stabilizers economic fluctuations could be smoothen.
Setting the issue "Most economists consider the marked increase in automatic stabilizers a highly favorable development with respect to maintenance of economic stability". Besides the rare privilege of having being signed by both Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson (Depres,Friedman, Hart, Samuelson, and Wallace [1950]), among others, this sentence expressed as soon as 1950 the consensus view on the stabilizing effect of fiscal rules governing tax revenue and public expendi tures and transfers. This positive ex ante assessment will have been confirmed ex post as part of the explanation for post war stabilization (Burns [1960], de Long and Summers [1986], Moore and Zarnovitz [1986]). However, it becomes disputed in both its positive and normative aspects. Many institutional changes since the eighties point at curbing back the transfer mechanisms underlying automatic stabilizers, and legal restraints on deficits such as the US balanced budget amendment or the European Maastricht criteria would involve serious risks for the future of stabilizers. Under such rules "the government would become, almost inevitally, a destabilizer rather than a stabilizer" said Joseph Stiglitz, quoted by the New York Times (April 1995)). "Built-in stabilizers are automatic fiscal adjustments that reduce the national income multiplier and thus cushion the effects of changes in autonomous spend ing on the level of income" (Pechman [1987]). Early analyses of the automatic fiscal stabilizers include the contributions of A. G. Hart [1945], R. Musgrave and M. Miller (1948) and E. C. Brown (1955).
A paper presented at the December 1999 conference quot;Fiscal Policy in an Era of Surpluses: Economic and Financial Implicationsquot;, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
This paper measures the size of automatic fiscal revenue stabilizers and evaluates their role in Latin America. It introduces a relatively rich tax structure into a dynamic, stochastic, multi-sector small open economy inhabited by rule-of-thumb consumers (who consume their wages and do not save or borrow) and Ricardian households to study the stabilizing properties of different parameters of the tax code. The economy faces multiple sources of business cycle fluctuations: (1) world capital market shocks; (2) world business cycle shocks; (3) terms of trade shocks; (4) government spending shocks; and (5) nontradable and (6) tradable sector technology innovations. Calibrating the model economy to a typical Latin American economy allows the evaluation of its ability to mimic the region's observed business cycle frequency properties and the assessment of the quantitative relationship between tax code parameters, business cycle forcing variables, and business cycle behavior. The model captures many of the salient features of Latin America's business cycle facts and finds that the degree of smoothing provided by the automatic revenue stabilizers - described by various properties of the tax system - is negligible. Simulation results seem to suggest an invariance property for middle-income countries: the amplitude of the business cycle is independent of the tax structure. And government size - measured by the GDP ratio of government spending - plays the role of an automatic stabilizer, but its smoothing effect is very weak.
In this paper, a simple methodology to assess the effectiveness of automatic stabilizers is proposed and empirically tested using French data for the period 1970-2000. The paper concludes that fiscal stabilizers have dampened output variability by approximately 35 45 percent depending on the measure of potential output used. In addition, the results indicate that fiscal stabilizers mainly operated through the reduction of private investment fluctuations from 1970 to 1985, and through the reduction of private consumption variability thereafter. Due to the counterfactual nature of the analysis performed, the simplicity of the theoretical model, and simultaneity issues that might introduce biases, the results can at most be interpreted as approximations of the phenomenon that is analyzed.