Fiscal Policies, Inflation and Capital Formation / Martin Feldstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Feldstein, Martin.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w0275.

NBER working paper series no. w0275

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fiscal policy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1978.

Cambridge, Mass. : National Bureau of Economic Research, 1978.

Summary:

Three ways of averting "excess saving" have been emphasized in both theory and practice. The thrust of the Keynesian prescription was to increase the government deficit to provide demand for the resources that would not otherwise be used for either consumption or investment. In this way, aggregate demand would be maintained by substituting public consumption for private consumption. A second alternative prescription was to reduce the private saving rate. Early Keynesians like Seymour Harris saw the new Social Security program as an effective way to reduce aggregate saving. The third type of policy, developed by JamesTobin, relies on increasing the rate of inflation and making money less attractive relative to real capital. In Tobin's analysis, the resulting increase in capital intensity offsets the higher saving rate and therefore maintains aggregate demand. This paper will examine ways of increasing capital intensity without raising the rate of inflation. The analysis will also show why, contrary to Tobin's conclusion, a higher rate of inflation may not succeed in increasing investors' willingness to hold real capital.

Notes:

Print version record

August 1978.