Search Results
Showing results 1 to 10 of approximately 18.
(refine search)
Working Paper
Linear data transformations used in economics
The paper examines the properties of standard data transformations--such as growth rates and moving averages--used by applied economists. Because many resources are devoted to understanding the economic significance of incoming data by government and financial-market economists, for example, this paper considers data filters that do not drop recent observations, in contrast to the approximately "ideal" measures recently developed in the literature. Using frequency-domain techniques, it is established that moving averages of multi-period growth rates can attenuate the bias and phase shifts ...
Working Paper
Fiscal rules and monetary policy
Working Paper
Inflation, taxes, and the durability of capital
Auerbach (1979, 1981) has demonstrated that inflation can lead to large inter-asset distortions, with the negative effects of higher inflation unambiguously declining with asset life. We show that this is true only if depreciation is treated as geometric for tax purposes. When depreciation is straightline, higher inflation can have the opposite effect, discouraging investment in long-lived assets. Since our current system can be thought of as a mixture of straightline and geometric, the sign of the inter-asset distortion is indeterminate. We show that under current U.S. tax rules, the ...
Journal Article
The automatic fiscal stabilizers: quietly doing their thing
Discussion Paper
The effects of fiscal policy on the U.S. economy
Working Paper
A quantitative defense of stabilization policy
In an analysis of the value of growth and stabilization of consumption, Robert Lucas presents a stunning set of calculations implying that a permanent increase in the growth rate of consumption of only one-tenth percentage point per year is worth nearly 50 times as much to consumers as complete elimination of consumption variability. This is because the higher growth of consumption is worth a lot while the reduced variability is worth virtually nothing (at least in the post-war United States). Taken at face value, such a result supports the pursuit of feasible growth policies but calls into ...
Working Paper
The effect of taxes on money demand and aggregate demand