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Business and Economics > Public Finance

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 121 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • Comparative or Joint Analysis of Fiscal and Monetary Policy; Stabilization; Treasury Policy x
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Cover IMF Working Papers
Policy Multipliers in Japan Under QQE
Sam Ouliaris
and
Celine Rochon
This paper tests whether Japan's key macro policy multipliers have declined since 2013, the year that Japan introduced Qualitative and Quantitative Easing. We use the augmented Blanchard-Perotti structural VAR model introduced in Ouliaris and Rochon (2021) to study the dynamic effects of shocks in the central bank’s asset holdings, interest rates, and debt levels relative to GDP on economic activity in Japan. We find that both the expenditure and tax multipliers of Japan have fallen, implying that the effectiveness of fiscal policy in Japan declined following the change in monetary policy. Moreover, we find that the efficacy of quantitative easing is small, implying the need for huge interventions to have a significant effect on real GDP, and that the effectiveness of quantitative easing has declined since 2013. We argue that the reduction in policy multipliers can be attributed to the upward trend in the government debt level relative to GDP which, despite historically low interest rates, has increased Japan’s structural deficit, and the likelihood of reduced expenditures and higher taxes going forward.
Keywords:
fiscal multipliers; structural VAR; policy multiplier; debt multiplier; tax multiplier; effectiveness of quantitative easing; QQE multiplier; Tax expenditures; Real interest rates; Central bank balance sheet
Cover IMF Working Papers
Unconventional Fiscal Policy in Times of High Inflation
Mai Dao
,
Allan Dizioli
,
Chris Jackson
,
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas
, and
Mr. Daniel Leigh
The surge in energy prices in 2022 has been a defining factor behind the increase in euro area inflation. We assess the impact of “unconventional fiscal policy,” defined as the set of fiscal measures, possibly expansionary, motivated by a desire to mute the effects of the increase in energy prices and to lower inflation. Overall, we find that these unconventional measures reduced euro area inflation by 1 to 2 percentage points in 2022 and may avoid an undershoot later on. When nonlinearities in the Phillips curve are taken into account, the net effect is to reduce inflation by about 0.5 percentage points in 2021-24, and keep it nearer to its target. About one-third to one-half of the reduction in 2022 reflects the direct effects of the measures on headline inflation, with much of the remainder reflecting the lower pass-through to core inflation. The fiscal measures were deficit-financed but had limited effects on raising inflation by stimulating demand and instead modestly helped to stabilize longer-term inflation expectations. Looking ahead, the prospective decline in inflation in the euro area is partly due to fortunate circumstances, with energy prices falling from their 2022 peaks and their pass-through effects fading, and with less economic overheating than in economies such as the United States. Implementing similar measures in the face of a more persistent increase in energy prices, or in a more overheated economy, would have caused a more persistent rise in core inflation.
Keywords:
Inflation; fiscal policy; monetary policy.; headline-inflation shock; inflation path; longer-term inflation expectation; inflation dynamics; counterfactual headline inflation; Energy prices; Labor markets; Inflation targeting; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Unpleasant Surprises? Elections and Tax News Shocks
Mr. Antonio David
and
Can Sever
Unanticipated changes in tax policy are likely to have different macroeconomic effects compared to anticipated changes due to several mechanisms, including fiscal foresight and policy uncertainty. It is therefore important to understand what drives such policy surprises. We explore the nature of unanticipated tax policy changes by focusing on a political economy determinant of those events, namely the timing of elections. Using monthly data for 22 advanced economies and emerging markets over the period 1990-2018, we show that implementation lags tend to be significantly longer for tax policy change announcements that are made during the pre-election periods, thereby leading to a lower likelihood of “tax news shocks”. We also find that implementation lags become much shorter for tax policy changes that are announced in the aftermath of elections, generating more frequent tax news shocks. This pattern remains similar for different tax measures or types of taxes. The findings are robust to a number of checks, including alternative definitions of tax news shocks, or to controlling for various economic and institutional factors.
Keywords:
Tax Shocks; Electoral Cycles; Political Economy; news shock; implementation lag; election period; change announcement; tax policy policy change; Probit models; Income tax systems; Consumption taxes; Corporate income tax; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Do Sovereign Wealth Funds Reduce Fiscal Policy Pro-cyclicality? New Evidence Using a Non-Parametric Approach
Mr. Ali J Al-Sadiq
and
Diego Alejandro Gutiérrez
The heightened volatility of commodity prices in recent years, reflecting the effects of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, begs the longstanding question of the optimal fiscal policy response to commodity price shocks. Fiscal performance in most commodity-exporting countries is typically shaped by shifts in commodity prices and economic activity, often resulting in procyclical fiscal policy. One way to minimize the procyclicality of fiscal policy is to set up a stabilization Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF). While such funds can help smooth government consumption in good and bad times, the empirical evidence of their value so far has been inconclusive. However, using an unbalanced panel dataset for 182 countries during 1980-2019, with two econometric methods that address the selection-bias problem, we provide robust evidence that stabilization SWFs do indeed help smooth government consumption by reducing fiscal policy volatility associated with commodity price fluctuations.
Keywords:
Sovereign Wealth Funds; Fiscal Policy Procyclicality; Matching Analysis; Commodity-exporting Countries; fiscal policy Pro-cyclicality; stabilization sovereign wealth fund; commodity price variability; stabilization SWF; discretionary fiscal policy volatility; Commodity price fluctuations; Commodity prices; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Quasi-Fiscal Implications of Central Bank Crisis Interventions
John Hooley
,
Mr. Ashraf Khan
,
Claney Lattie
,
Istvan Mak
,
Ms. Natalia Salazar
,
Amanda Sayegh
, and
Mr. Peter Stella
We develop a stylized balance sheet framework to help identify ‘quasi-fiscal’ components of central bank crisis interventions and show how sources of fiscal risk are created from both the new claims and how they are funded. Combining central bank balance sheet data with survey evidence from intervention announcements, we document the risks to the public sector balance sheet from central banks’ interventions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, including non-conventional lending to the financial and non-financial sectors and large-scale purchases of government securities. Case study analysis indicates that management of fiscal risks from central bank crisis interventions varies greatly across countries, although several good practices can be identified.
Keywords:
Central bank; quasi-fiscal; fiscal risks; monetary policy; fiscal policy; sovereign debt management; policy coordination; support facilities; intervention announcement; asset purchase facility; liquidity-providing repo; variable interest entity; Central bank balance sheet; Central bank operations; Financial statements; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Quasi-Fiscal Implications of Central Bank Crisis Interventions: Case Studies
John Hooley
,
Claney Lattie
, and
Mr. Peter Stella
This paper presents case studies of central bank crisis interventions during the Covid-19 and the Global Financial Crises in four jurisdictions (Canada, Chile, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The paper serves as an Annex to the main IMF Working Paper WP/23/114 ‘Quasi-Fiscal Implications of Central Bank Crisis Interventions.’
Keywords:
Central bank; quasi-fiscal; fiscal risks; monetary policy; fiscal policy; sovereign debt management; policy coordination; central bank crisis interventions; governance structure; capital markets Department; asset purchase; BoE balance sheet; Financial statements; Loans; Bonds; Securities; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Measuring the Stances of Monetary and Fiscal Policy
Mr. Francis Vitek
We derive measures of the stances of monetary and fiscal policy within the framework of an empirically plausible extension of the basic New Keynesian model, and jointly estimate them for the United States using a closed form multivariate linear filter. Our theoretical analysis reveals that the neutral stance of monetary policy — as measured by the real natural rate of interest — depends on the stance of fiscal policy, which in turn depends on the composition and expected timing of structural changes in the fiscal instruments. Our empirical application finds that accounting for fiscal policy significantly alters the estimated stance of monetary policy, and that the so-called fiscal impulse is a poor proxy for the stance of fiscal policy.
Keywords:
stance of monetary policy; stance of fiscal policy; new keynesian model; multivariate linear filter; fiscal policy stance; stances of monetary and fiscal policy; monetary policy stance; filter estimation result; Fiscal stance; Monetary stance; Real interest rates; Output gap; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
It’s Never Different: Fiscal Policy Shocks and Inflation
Mr. Serhan Cevik
and
Fedor Miryugin
This paper investigates the impact of fiscal shocks on inflation, using a large panel of 139 countries over the period 1970–2021. First, both headline and core measures of inflation increase in response to expansionary shifts in the fiscal policy stance. Second, we split the sample and observe an intriguing pattern that fiscal policy shocks are primarily significant in developing countries. Third, the inflationary impact of fiscal policy shocks is dependent on fiscal space and economic conditions, as well as monetary policy type, exchange rate regimes and fiscal rules, at the time of the shock. We confirm these results by using the narrative approach and forecast errors, as well as cyclically- adjusted data on government revenues and non-interest expenditures, to identify exogenous changes in fiscal policy. The analysis has several important policy implications: (i) fiscal policy is a critical anchor of macroeconomic stability; (ii) fiscal policy should be used with care in aggregate demand management as it has significant effects on inflation, which are highly dependent on fiscal space and economic conditions; and (iii) flexible exchange rates and rule-based policymaking provide greater resilience to inflationary shocks.
Keywords:
Inflation; fiscal policy; public debt; output gap; local projections; fiscal policy shock; fiscal policy stance; monetary policy type; core CPI; inflation targeting policy; Fiscal stance; Fiscal space; Exchange rate arrangements; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Revisiting the Countercyclicality of Fiscal Policy
João Tovar Jalles
,
Mr. Youssouf Kiendrebeogo
,
Mr. Waikei R Lam
, and
Mr. Roberto Piazza
This paper provides a novel dataset of time-varying measures on the degree of countercyclicality of fiscal policies for advanced and developing economies between 1980 and 2021. The use of time-varying measures of fiscal stabilization, with special attention to potential endogenity issues, overcomes the major limitation of previous studies and alllows the analysis to account for both country-specific as well as global factors. The paper also examines the key determinants of countercyclicality of fiscal policy with a focus on factors as severe crises, informality, financial development, and governance. Empirical results show that (i) fiscal policy tends to be more counter-cyclical during severe crises than typical recessions, especially for advanced economies; (ii) fiscal counter-cyclicality has increased over time for many economies over the last two decades; (iii) discretionary and automatic countercyclicality are both strong in advanced economies but acyclical (at times procyclical) in low-income countries, (iv) fiscal countercyclicality operates primarily through the expenditure channel, particularly for social benefits, (vi) better financial development, larger government size and stronger institutional quality are associated with larger countercyclical effects of fiscal policy. Our results are robust to various specifications and endogeneity checks.
Keywords:
Countercyclical fiscal policy; automatic stabilizers; discretionary ficsal policy; fiscal multipliers; stabilization coefficients; local projection; Countercyclicality of fiscal policy; countercyclicality of fiscal policies; Countercyclicality coefficient; novel dataset; fiscal counter-cyclicality; government size; Fiscal stabilization; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Advancing the Monetary Policy Toolkit through Outright Transfers
Sascha Buetzer
This paper argues that in reserve currency issuing economies at the effective lower bound, outright transfers from the central bank to households are both more equitable and more effective in achieving monetary policy objectives than asset purchases or negative interest rates. It shows that concerns pertaining to central banks’ policy solvency and equity position can be addressed through a careful assessment of a central bank's loss absorbing capacity and, if need be, tiered reserve remuneration policies. It also spells out key differences to a debt or money financed fiscal stimulus, which are particularly pronounced in a currency union without a central fiscal capacity. The paper concludes by discussing broader institutional, political, and legal considerations.
Keywords:
Monetary Policy; Outright Transfers; Central Bank Balance Sheet; Central Bank Solvency; Central Bank Equity; Helicopter Money; Inequality; policy solvency; equity position; revaluation account; Unconventional monetary policies; Financial statements; Global