From Macroeconomic Stability to Welfare: Optimizing Fiscal Rules in Commodity-Dependent Economies: Discussion Paper

This paper examines the welfare implications of alternative rule-based fiscal policies in an economy with financially-constrained households. Using a New Keynesian DSGE model of a multi-sectoral small and open commodity-exporting economy, we find that adopting a welfare-maximizing fiscal policy involves an actively countercyclical response to the tax revenue gap and a procyclical response to international commodity prices. Transitioning from a procyclical stance to the optimized rule regarding the tax revenue gap leads to welfare gains of approximately 1.5% and 0.1% of permanent consumption for Non-Ricardian and Ricardian consumers, respectively. Moreover, moving from a countercyclical stance to the optimized rule concerning the commodity revenue gap results in 1% and 0.02% larger welfare gains for Non-Ricardian and Ricardian consumers, respectively. In terms of implementation, social transfers are the best instrument to implement the fiscal rule, yielding higher welfare gains, lower macroeconomic volatility, and only moderate fluctuations in government spending.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Inter-American Development Bank
Other Authors: Rodrigo Heresi
Language:English
Published: Inter-American Development Bank
Subjects:Fiscal Policy, Economic Stabilization, Economy, Macroeconomy, Fiscal Rule, Public Expenditure, Investment, Small Business, Tax Revenue, Taxation, Fiscal Procyclicality, E62 - Fiscal Policy, Q32 - Exhaustible Resources and Economic Development, F41 - Open Economy Macroeconomics, Fiscal Rules;Raw materials sector;Open economy macroeconomics;DSGE,
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0004918
https://publications.iadb.org/en/macroeconomic-stability-welfare-optimizing-fiscal-rules-commodity-dependent-economies-discussion
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