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To react or not? Technology shocks, fiscal policy and welfare in the EU-3

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  • Malley, Jim
  • Philippopoulos, Apostolis
  • Woitek, Ulrich

Abstract

This paper develops a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to examine the quantitative macroeconomic implications of counter-cyclical fiscal policy for France, Germany and the UK. The model incorporates real wage rigidity and consumption habits, as the particular market failures justifying policy intervention. We subject the model to productivity shocks and allow policy instruments to react to the output gap and the debt-to-output ratio. A welfare analysis reveals that the most effective instrument-target combination is to use public consumption to stabilize the output gap. Moreover, welfare gains from counter-cyclical fiscal policy are much stronger in the presence of wage rigidities compared with consumption habits. Finally, since active policy and automatic stabilizers are substitutes, it is possible that relatively undistorted economies may be in need of countercyclical fiscal action due to inadequate automatic stabilizers.

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  • Malley, Jim & Philippopoulos, Apostolis & Woitek, Ulrich, 2009. "To react or not? Technology shocks, fiscal policy and welfare in the EU-3," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 689-714, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:53:y:2009:i:6:p:689-714
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    8. Konstantinos Angelopoulos & Jim Malley & Apostolis Philippopoulos, 2008. "Welfare Implications of Public Education Spending Rules," CESifo Working Paper Series 2510, CESifo.
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    10. Angelopoulos, Konstantinos & Fernandez, Bernardo X. & Malley, James R., 2010. "The Distributional Consequences of Supply-Side Reforms in General Equilibrium," SIRE Discussion Papers 2010-85, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    11. Papageorgiou, Theofanis & Michaelides, Panayotis G. & Tsionas, Efthymios G., 2016. "Business cycle determinants and fiscal policy: A Panel ARDL approach for EMU," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 57-68.
    12. Malley, James & Philippopoulos, Apostolis, 2023. "The macroeconomic effects of funding U.S. infrastructure," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
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    14. Wei Jiang, 2014. "Optimal taxation and labour wedge in models with equilibrium unemployment," Studies in Economics 1407, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    15. Apostolis Philippopoulos & Petros Varthalitis & Vanghelis Vassilatos, 2013. "Optimal Fiscal Action in an Economy with Sovereign Premia and without Monetary Independence: An Application to Italy," CESifo Working Paper Series 4199, CESifo.
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    20. Dimitris Papageorgiou, 2011. "Fiscal policy, economic activity and welfare: the case of Greece," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(3), pages 2629-2640.

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