Optimal Fiscal Policy in a Business Cycle Model / V. V. Chari, Lawrence J. Christiano, Patrick J. Kehoe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chari, V. V.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Christiano, Lawrence J.

Kehoe, Patrick J.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w4490.

NBER working paper series no. w4490

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Business cycles--Econometric models.

Business cycles.

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1993.

Cambridge, Massachusetts : National Bureau of Economic Research, 1993.

Summary:

This paper develops the quantitative implications of optimal fiscal policy in a business cycle model. In a stationary equilibrium the ex ante tax rate on capital income is approximately zero. There is an equivalence class of ex post capital income tax rates and bond policies that support a given allocation. Within this class the optimal ex post capital tax rates can range from being close to i.i.d. to being close to a random walk. The tax rate on labor income fluctuates very little and inherits the persistence properties of the exogenous shocks and thus there is no presumption that optimal labor tax rates follow a random walk. The welfare gains from smoothing labor tax rates and making ex ante capital income tax rates zero are small and most of the welfare gains come from an initial period of high taxation on capital income.

Notes:

Print version record

October 1993.