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The Optimal Use of Government Purchases for Stabilization

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  • Michaillat, Pascal
  • Saez, Emmanuel

Abstract

This paper explores how government purchases can improve stabilization. When unemployment is inefficiently high, optimal government purchases deviate from the Samuelson level to reduce the unemployment gap. Hence, stimulus spending is desirable in slumps whenever the unemployment multiplier is positive. Then, the optimal level of stimulus spending is increasing in the multiplier for small multipliers, largest for a moderate multiplier, and decreasing beyond that. Furthermore, the optimal level of stimulus spending is increasing in the elasticity of substitution between public and private consumption. In particular, optimal stimulus spending is zero when extra public services are useless, and it completely fills the unemployment gap when extra public services are as valuable as extra private services. The results hold whether taxes are nondistortionary or distortionary.

Suggested Citation

  • Michaillat, Pascal & Saez, Emmanuel, 2016. "The Optimal Use of Government Purchases for Stabilization," CEPR Discussion Papers 11577, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11577
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    Cited by:

    1. Chugh, Sanjay K. & Lechthaler, Wolfgang & Merkl, Christian, 2018. "Optimal fiscal policy with labor selection," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 142-189.
    2. Pablo D Fajgelbaum & Eduardo Morales & Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato & Owen Zidar, 2019. "State Taxes and Spatial Misallocation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(1), pages 333-376.
    3. Giorgio Motta & Raffaele Rossi, 2019. "Optimal Fiscal Policy with Consumption Taxation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(1), pages 139-161, February.
    4. Camille Landais & Pascal Michaillat & Emmanuel Saez, 2018. "A Macroeconomic Approach to Optimal Unemployment Insurance: Theory," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 152-181, May.
    5. Xu, Kun & Xu, Wenli, 2015. "中国政府消费支出对经济波动的传导机理分析 [Study on Influential Mechanism Between Government Expenditure of Consumption and Economic Fluctuation]," MPRA Paper 70994, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Dec 2015.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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