A Tax Rebate in A Recession: Is It Safe and Effective?

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A Tax Rebate in A Recession: Is It Safe and Effective?

Author Info

Kenneth Lewis () (Department of Economics,University of Delaware)
Laurence Seidman ()

Abstract

Is a tax rebate safe and effective? Simulations with an empirically-tested macro-econometric model are used to estimate the impact of the actual 2001 tax rebate in the U.S. and of a rebate twice as large repeated in three additional quarters, and the results of the simulations are interpreted in light of two important recent empirical studies of the spending of the 2001 rebate by households. Our simulations show that as long as a tax rebate is temporary and detriggered when the recession ends, its use during a recession does not pose a significant debt or inflation problem. We find that at the end of one year the larger repeated rebate would have reduced the unemployment rate from 5.9% to at least 5.2%. Thus, a triggered tax rebate is a safe and effective anti-recession policy.

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Paper provided by University of Delaware, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 05-20.

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Length: 31 pages
Date of creation: 2005
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:dlw:wpaper:05-20

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ALL-2005-11-12 (All new papers)
NEP-MAC-2005-11-12 (Macroeconomics)

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