Myopic governments and welfare-enhancing debt limits

This paper studies welfare consequences of a soft borrowing constraint on sovereign debt which is modeled as a proportional fine per unit of debt exceeding some reference value. Debt is the result of myopic fiscal policy where the government is assumed to have a smaller discount factor than the private sector. Due to the absence of lump-sum taxation, debt reduces welfare. The paper shows that the imposition of a soft borrowing constraint, which resembles features of the Stability and Growth Pact and which is taken into account by the policy maker when setting its instruments, prevents excessive borrowing. The constraint can be implemented such as to (i) control the long run level of debt, (ii) prevent debt accumulation, and (iii) induce debt consolidation. In all three cases the constraint enhances welfare and in a welfare ranking these gains outweigh the short run welfare losses of increasing the costs of using debt to smooth taxes over the business cycle. JEL Classification: H3, H63, E6debt bias, fiscal constraints, Myopic governments, social welfare, Stability and Growth Pact

Labour tax progressivity and output volatility: evidence from OECD countries

This paper investigates empirically the effect of personal income tax progressivity on output volatility in a sample of OECD countries over the period 1982-2009. Our measure of tax progressivity is based on the difference between the marginal and the average income tax rate for the average production worker. We find supportive empirical evidence for the hypothesis that higher personal income tax progressivity leads to lower output volatility. All other factors constant, countries with more progressive personal income tax systems seem to benefit from stronger automatic stabilisers. JEL Classification: E63, E32, H10automatic stabilisers, output volatility, personal income taxes, Progressivity

Monetary policy, external instruments, and heteroskedasticity

We develop a structural vector autoregressive framework that combines external instruments and heteroskedasticity for identification of monetary policy shocks. We show that exploiting both types of information sharpens structural inference, allows testing the relevance and exogeneity condition for instruments separately using likelihood ratio tests, and facilitates the economic interpretation of the structural shock of interest. We test alternative instruments and find that narrative and model‐based measures are valid, while high‐frequency data instruments show signs of invalidity. Finally, we document that monetary shocks identified with both a valid instrument and heteroskedasticity have larger effects on production and prices than monetary shocks identified via an instrument only

The multifaceted impact of US trade policy on financial markets

We study the multifaceted effects of trade policy shocks on financial markets using a structural vector autoregression identified via event day heteroskedasticity. We find that restrictive US trade policy shocks affect US and international stock prices heterogeneously, but generally negatively. They increase market uncertainty, lower US interest rates, and lead to an appreciation of the US dollar. The effects are significant for several weeks or quarters. Decomposing the trade policy shocks further suggests that trade policy uncertainty dominates tariff level effects. Chinese trade policy shocks against the United States further hurt US stocks.Deutsche Bundesbank http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100008450Peer Reviewe

The Impact of Monetary Policy on Structural Reforms in the Euro Area. Bertelsmann Stiftung May 2020.

Since the euro area crisis, there has been an intense discussion about the potential side effects of ECB policy on reform efforts of euro area countries. This discussion is set to become even more intense in the wake of the corona crisis and the ECB’s forceful intervention. Opponents of expansionary monetary policy contend that it reduces reforms, whereas proponents argue that it spurs reforms. We test these arguments empirically by studying the effect of monetary policy shocks on structural reform adoption in the euro area. Using an event study approach, we find that surprise monetary expansions causally increase the likelihood of structural reforms significantly: For the period between 2006 and 2016, a monetary surprise expansion of 25 basis points by the ECB increased on average countries’ reform rate by roughly 20 percentage points after two years. This effect is stronger for countries with weaker macroeconomic fundamentals or tighter public budget constraints. The findings are consistent with the ‘room-for-manoeuver hypothesis’ that expansionary monetary policy spurs competition-friendly supply-side policy by reducing the shortrun costs of reforms and increasing governments’ financial leeway. More research will be required to establish whether the results are applicable in a post-corona economic environment