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Government Budget Deficits in Large Open Economies

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  • Willem H. Buiter
  • Anne Sibert
  • Anne C. Sibert

Abstract

Large and growing levels of public debt in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and the Euro Area raise new interest in the cross-country effects of a large open economy’s deficits. We consider a dynamic optimising model with costly tax collection and exogenously given public spending and initial debt. We ask whether the externalities associated with an individual country’s deficits are positive or negative. We characterise the path of taxes in the Nash equilibrium where policy makers act nationalistically and compare this outcome to the global optimal outcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Willem H. Buiter & Anne Sibert & Anne C. Sibert, 2011. "Government Budget Deficits in Large Open Economies," CESifo Working Paper Series 3476, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3476
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    1. Bishnu, Monisankar & Ghate, Chetan & Gopalakrishnan, Pawan, 2011. "Distortionary Taxes and Public Investment in a Model of Endogenous Investment Specific Technological Change," MPRA Paper 34111, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    fiscal policy; international policy coordination; optimal taxation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • F42 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - International Policy Coordination and Transmission
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

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