{"id":11129,"date":"2014-09-10T10:50:24","date_gmt":"2014-09-10T14:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/multiplier-effect.org\/?p=11129"},"modified":"2015-02-13T14:34:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T19:34:05","slug":"can-fiscal-policy-stabilize-the-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/multiplier-effect\/can-fiscal-policy-stabilize-the-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Fiscal Policy Stabilize the Economy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n[WolframCDF source=&#8221;http:\/\/multiplier-effect.org\/files\/2014\/09\/alternative-fiscal-policies.cdf&#8221; width=&#8221;397&#8243; height=&#8221;448&#8243; altimage=&#8221;http:\/\/multiplier-effect.org\/files\/2014\/09\/alternative-fiscal-policies.png&#8221; altimagewidth=&#8221;397&#8243; altimageheight=&#8221;448&#8243;]<br \/>\nHere is a new Wolfram CDF, which I have constructed based on a macro model. The assumptions behind the model&#8211;other than the exact parameter values&#8211;are loosely stated in this list:<\/p>\n<p>1) industries dominated by a handful of firms, rather than perfect competition<br \/>\n2) production technology that requires capital and labor inputs<br \/>\n3) chronic underemployment and less-than-full capacity utilization (percent of capital stock in use at a given time)<br \/>\n4) sovereign money and a policy-determined interest rate<br \/>\n5) two groups of households, only one of which has money to save<br \/>\n6) net investment a function of the profit and capacity utilization rates<br \/>\n7) budget deficits offset by the issuance of treasury bills and sovereign money<br \/>\n8) a government that employs workers to produce free public services<br \/>\n9) a fiscal policy rule with (a) a balanced budget target (labeled \u201c0\u201d in the CDF above) or (b) public production and capacity utilization targets (labeled \u201c1\u201d in the CDF above)<br \/>\n10) nonlinear functions that result in endogenous cycles in this figure for some parameter values and policy functions (try different parameter values with policy rule \u201c1\u201d for example)<br \/>\n11) gradual adjustment of public and private-sector output toward levels indicated by one of the two fiscal policy rules and output demand, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>The arrows in the CDF show directions of movement in 2D space, where the two axes represent public production (horizontal) and capacity utilization (vertical). We got a different look at the same model in <a title=\"earlier post on policy rules in recent articles\" href=\"http:\/\/multiplier-effect.org\/some-more-alternatives-to-fiscal-austerity\/\">this previous post<\/a>. In this new CDF, I have tried to improve on the realism of the parameter values. Here is a<a title=\"download site again\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wolfram.com\/cdf-player\/\"> link to the download site<\/a> at Wolfram for the needed CDFPlayer software.<\/p>\n<p>The most serious omissions in the model above, by the way, are a foreign sector, a mechanism by which the broad price level can change over time, and commercial bank deposits and loans. As mentioned before, I am working on adding these and other new features to a larger version of the model depicted above for the upcoming <a title=\"conference page at Levy Institute site\" href=\"http:\/\/www.levyinstitute.org\/news\/the-12th-international-post-keynesian-conference\">International Post Keynesian Conference<\/a> in Kansas City later this month. Any macroeconomic model, of course, is only an abstract and simplified version of a real economy. But the bottom line is that (1) guiding fiscal policy with a balanced-budget target leads to instability in all cases, while (2) the output-stabilizing fiscal rule generates a business cycle of varying size or convergence to a point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; [WolframCDF source=&#8221;http:\/\/multiplier-effect.org\/files\/2014\/09\/alternative-fiscal-policies.cdf&#8221; width=&#8221;397&#8243; height=&#8221;448&#8243; altimage=&#8221;http:\/\/multiplier-effect.org\/files\/2014\/09\/alternative-fiscal-policies.png&#8221; altimagewidth=&#8221;397&#8243; altimageheight=&#8221;448&#8243;] Here is a new Wolfram CDF, which I have constructed based on a macro model. The assumptions behind the model&#8211;other than the exact parameter values&#8211;are loosely stated in this list: 1) industries dominated by a handful of firms, rather than perfect competition 2) production technology that requires [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,49,112,40],"tags":[141,74,946,954,812],"class_list":["post-11129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economic-policy","category-fiscal-policy","category-modern-monetary-theory","category-monetary-policy","tag-austerity","tag-budget-deficit","tag-fiscal-policy-rule","tag-international-post-keynesian-conference","tag-umkc"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/multiplier-effect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/multiplier-effect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/multiplier-effect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/multiplier-effect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/multiplier-effect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11129"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/multiplier-effect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11733,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/multiplier-effect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11129\/revisions\/11733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/multiplier-effect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/multiplier-effect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/multiplier-effect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}