Working Paper

Fiscal stimulus and distortionary taxation


Abstract: We quantify the fiscal multipliers in response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. We extend the benchmark Smets-Wouters (2007) New Keynesian model, allowing for credit-constrained households, the zero lower bound, government capital, and distortionary taxation. The posterior yields modestly positive short-run multipliers around 0.53 and modestly negative long-run multipliers around -0.36. We explain the central empirical findings with the help of a simple three equation New Keynesian model with sticky wages and credit-constrained households.

Keywords: Keynesian economics;

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Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Part of Series: Working Papers

Publication Date: 2013

Number: 13-46