Aging: Some Pleasant Fiscal Arithmetic

Understanding Policy in the Great Recession: Some Unpleasant Fiscal Arithmetic

I use the valuation equation of government debt to understand fiscal and monetary policy in and following the great recession of 2008-2009. I also examine policy alternatives to avoid deflation, and how fiscal pressures might lead to inflation. I conclude that the central bank may be almost powerless to avoid deflation or inflation; that an eventual fiscal inflation can come well before large d...

Some Fiscal Calculus

What is the impact of fiscal policy on the economy? How large are the “multipliers” of government spending and tax cuts? This old question has recently received considerable attention, in particular in the context of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. I contribute to answering that question by calculating fiscal multipliers in a baseline neoclassical growth model with en...

Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers: Some Lessons

Some remarks on the arithmetic-geometric index

Using an identity for effective resistances, we find a relationship between the arithmetic-geometric index and the global ciclicity index. Also, with the help of majorization, we find tight upper and lower bounds for the arithmetic-geometric index.

Some unpleasant bargaining arithmetic?

It is commonly believed that, since unanimity rule safeguards the rights of each individual, it protects minorities from the possibility of expropriation, thus yielding more equitable outcomes than majority rule. We show that this is not necessarily the case in bargaining environments. We study a multilateral bargaining model à la Baron and Ferejohn (1989), where players are heterogeneous with ...