Tax base and crowding-in effects of balanced budget fiscal policy

Abstract

A dynamic general equilibrium business cycle model is constructed with staggered price adjustment, monopolistic wage setting and distortionary taxation. The government purchases goods, runs an unemployment benefit system and balances its budget through a proportional tax on labour income. A temporary tax-financed increase in government expenditures can lower the tax rate through a demand-induced widening of the tax base. It is shown analytically that this allows private consumption to rise, under realistic conditions, despite the negative wealth effect of increased fiscal spending. © The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004.