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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Economics

ICEPP Working Papers

Series

2011

Infrastructure capital; public investment; distortionary taxation; fiscal policy; Yaari-Blanchard overlapping generations

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Public Infrastructure Investment, Output Dynamics, And Balanced Budget Fiscal Rules, Pedro R.D. Bom, Jenny Ligthart Jan 2011

Public Infrastructure Investment, Output Dynamics, And Balanced Budget Fiscal Rules, Pedro R.D. Bom, Jenny Ligthart

ICEPP Working Papers

We study the dynamic output and welfare effects of public infrastructure investment under a balanced budget fiscal rule, using an overlapping generations model of a small open economy. The government finances public investment by employing distortionary labor taxes. We find a negative short-run output multiplier, which (in absolute terms) exceeds the positive long-run output multiplier. In contrast to conventional results regarding public investment shocks, we obtain dampened cycles in output and the labor tax rate. The cyclical dynamics are induced by the interaction of households' finite life spans, the wealth effect on labor supply, and the balanced budget fiscal rule. …