IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mes/postke/v39y2016i1p44-71.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The state spends first: Logic, facts, fictions, open questions

Author

Listed:
  • Sergio Cesaratto

Abstract

Keynesian (or Kaleckian) logic leads post Keynesian economists to presume that a variation of state revenues from taxes and sales of Treasury bonds are the result of a variation in state spending and not the other way around. In the past two decades, the exponents of modern monetary theory (MMT) have been at the forefront in asserting the Keynesian (or Kaleckian) logic of this proposition, filling a theoretical vacuum in post Keynesian thinking. The question is that MMT consolidates the Treasury and Central Bank (CB) so that the latter automatically creates purchasing power in favor of decisions of the former to spend. Critics, however, point out that most institutional arrangements forbid CBs to finance the Treasury directly. After Lavoie (2013), the debate has moved forward and seen some convergence. The present paper critically reviews for unfamiliar readers an otherwise almost esoteric but fundamental discussion.

Suggested Citation

  • Sergio Cesaratto, 2016. "The state spends first: Logic, facts, fictions, open questions," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 44-71, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:mes:postke:v:39:y:2016:i:1:p:44-71
    DOI: 10.1080/01603477.2016.1147333
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01603477.2016.1147333
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/01603477.2016.1147333?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. L. Randall Wray, 2024. "Modern Money Theory," Springer Books, Springer, edition 3, number 978-3-031-47884-0, December.
    2. Eric Tymoigne, 2014. "Modern Money Theory, and Interrelations Between the Treasury and Central Bank: The Case of the United States," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(3), pages 641-662.
    3. Bindseil, Ulrich, 2004. "Monetary Policy Implementation: Theory, past, and present," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199274543.
    4. Kenneth D. Garbade, 2014. "Direct purchases of U.S. Treasury securities by Federal Reserve banks," Staff Reports 684, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    5. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226320625 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Eric Tymoigne & L. Randall Wray, 2013. "Modern Money Theory 101: A Reply to Critics," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_778, Levy Economics Institute.
    7. L. Randall Wray, 1998. "Understanding Modern Money," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1668.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Allain, Olivier, 2022. "A supermultiplier model with two non-capacity-generating semi-autonomous demand components," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 91-103.
    2. Brett Fiebiger, 2016. "Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy and the Mechanics of Modern Clearing and Settlement Systems," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 590-608, October.
    3. Morlin, Guilherme Spinato, 2022. "Growth led by government expenditure and exports: Public and external debt stability in a supermultiplier model," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 586-598.
    4. Summa, Ricardo de Figueiredo, 2022. "Alternative uses of functional finance: Lerner, MMT and the Sraffiansh," IPE Working Papers 175/2021, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    5. Ehnts, Dirk H., 2020. "The fiscal-monetary nexus in Germany," IPE Working Papers 138/2020, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    6. Sergio Cesaratto, 2016. "The modern revival of the Classical surplus approach: implications for the analysis of growth and crises," Department of Economics University of Siena 735, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    7. Olivier Allain, 2021. "A supermultiplier model of the natural rate of growth," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 612-634, July.
    8. Stefano di Bucchianico, 2019. "A bit of Keynesian debt-to-GDP arithmetic for deficit-capped countries," Bulletin of Political Economy, Bulletin of Political Economy, vol. 13(1), pages 55-83, June.
    9. Cesaratto, Sergio, 2017. "Garegnani, Ackley and the years of high theory at Svimez," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP26, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eric Tymoigne & L. Randall Wray, 2015. "Modern Money Theory: A Reply to Palley," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 24-44, January.
    2. Tanweer Akram & Syed Al-Helal Uddin, 2021. "An empirical analysis of long-term Brazilian interest rates," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Tanweer Akram, 2021. "A Note Concerning the Dynamics of Government Bond Yields," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 66(2), pages 323-339, October.
    4. Robert S. Kravchuk, 2020. "Post‐Keynesian Public Budgeting & Finance: Assessing Contributions From Modern Monetary Theory," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 95-123, September.
    5. L. Randall Wray, 2020. "Sovereign Currency and Non‐Sovereign Budgets: The Modern Money Theory Approach," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 26-48, September.
    6. Eric Tymoigne & L. Randall Wray, 2013. "Modern Money Theory 101: A Reply to Critics," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_778, Levy Economics Institute.
    7. Josh Ryan-Collins, 2015. "Is Monetary Financing Inflationary? A Case Study of the Canadian Economy, 1935-75," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_848, Levy Economics Institute.
    8. Brett Fiebiger & Scott Fullwiler & Stephanie Kelton & L. Randall Wray, 2012. "Modern Monetary Theory: A Debate," Working Papers wp279, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    9. Phil Armstrong, 2020. "Can Heterodox Economics Make a Difference?," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 19964.
    10. Yeva Nersisyan & L. Randall Wray, 2022. "Is It Time for Rate Hikes? The Fed Cannot Engineer a Soft Landing but Risks Stagflation by Trying," Economics Public Policy Brief Archive ppb_157, Levy Economics Institute.
    11. Nenovsky, Nikolay, 2020. "The Theory of the Emission Economy Bolshevik roots of "Modern Monetary Theory"," MPRA Paper 113048, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Thomas I. Palley, 2015. "Money, Fiscal Policy, and Interest Rates: A Critique of Modern Monetary Theory," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 1-23, January.
    13. Thomas I. Palley, 2015. "The Critics of Modern Money Theory (MMT) are Right," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 45-61, January.
    14. Strachman, Eduardo, 2016. "Notas sobre Mecanismos de Transmissão da Política Monetária [Some Notes on the Monetary Policy Transmission Mechanisms]," MPRA Paper 72856, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Tianhao Zhi, 2015. "A Critique of Modern Money Theory and the Disequilibrium Dynamics of Banking and Government Finance," Working Paper Series 184, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.
    16. Tianhao Zhi, 2016. "Animal Spirits and Financial Instability - A Disequilibrium Macroeconomic Perspective," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 1-2016, January-A.
    17. Eli Direye & Tarron Khemraj, 2022. "Central bank securities and foreign exchange market intervention in a developing economy," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 280-297, February.
    18. Marc Lavoie, 2022. "Post-Keynesian Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 19900.
    19. Zengping He & Genliang Jia, 2019. "An Institutional Analysis of China's Reform of their Monetary Policy Framework," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_925, Levy Economics Institute.
    20. Tanweer Akram & Huiqing Li, 2018. "The Dynamics of Japanese Government Bonds' Nominal Yields," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_906, Levy Economics Institute.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mes:postke:v:39:y:2016:i:1:p:44-71. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/MPKE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.