To Starve or Not to Starve the Beast?

Download or read book To Starve or Not to Starve the Beast? written by Mr.Michael Kumhof and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For thirty years prominent voices have advocated a policy of starving the beast cutting taxes to force government spending cuts. This paper analyzes the macroeconomic and welfare consequences of this policy using a two-country general equilibrium model. Under several strong assumptions the policy, if fully implemented, produces domestic output and welfare gains accompanied by losses elsewhere. But negative effects can easily arise in the presence of longer policy implementation lags, utility-enhancing government spending, and productive government capital. Overall, the analysis finds no support for the idea that starving the beast is a foolproof way towards higher output and welfare.