Resource title

The economic effects of restrictions on government budget deficits

Resource image

Resource description

In overlapping-generations economies with perfect financial markets and lumpsumtaxation, restrictions on the government budget deficits do not limit theset of achievable allocations. For economies in which tax instruments are distortionaryand limited in number, deficits are irrelevant only in the unrealisticcase in which the number of tax instruments is large relative to the numberof policy goals. In particular, if the government can use only anonymous consumptiontaxes, then achieving the prescribed deficits without changing theequilibrium allocation will typically be impossible when the number of consumersexceeds the number of commodities. A similar result holds if consumercredit is (exogenously) restricted. Surprisingly, in this case, distortionary taxesmay be more likely than lump-sum taxes to lead to the irrelevance of governmentdeficits. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D51,D91, E32.Keywords: Balanced Budget, Balanced-Budget Amendment, Burden of the Public Debt,Comparative Statics, Consumption Taxes, Credit Restrictions, Distortionary Taxes, EconomicPolicy, Government Budget Deficit, Maastricht Treaty, Optimal Taxation, OverlappingGenerations.

Resource author

Christian Ghiglino, Karl Shell

Resource publisher

Resource publish date

Resource language

eng

Resource content type

application/pdf

Resource resource URL

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7542

Resource license

Check the according license before adaptation. When adapting give credits to the original author.