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Balanced Budget Rules and Aggregate Instability: The Role of Consumption Taxes

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  • Giannitsarou, Chryssi

Abstract

It is known that, in the context of a real business cycle model with constant returns to scale and a balanced budget fiscal policy rule, steady state indeterminacy may arise as a result of endogenous labor income tax rates. In this paper, it is shown that when the government finances its expenditures via an endogenous consumption tax instead, there exists a unique steady state which is always saddle-path stable. As a result, combining income taxes with consumption taxes makes the ranges of indeterminacy shrink, thus reducing the possibility of aggregate instability. From a policy perspective, the results provide an additional argument in favor of (less distortionary) consumption taxes in place of capital taxes.

Suggested Citation

  • Giannitsarou, Chryssi, 2006. "Balanced Budget Rules and Aggregate Instability: The Role of Consumption Taxes," CEPR Discussion Papers 5531, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5531
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fiscal policy; Consumption tax; Balanced budget rules; Indeterminacy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C62 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Existence and Stability Conditions of Equilibrium
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory

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