Is there a role for active fiscal policies? Supply-side and demand-side effects of fiscal policies

Abstract

There is no doubt that the subject of fiscal policy has been, is, and, with complete certainty, will continue to be a recurrent subject in Malcolm Sawyer’s works. A great deal of his long-term research activity has been focused on the study of the economic impact of active fiscal economies and on the defence of the active role of fiscal policy from a double perspective. Firstly, as a tool of stabilising economic policy, correcting and compensating the disequilibrium generated by the fluctuations in economic activity, which are explained as a result of changes in the aggregate demand. Secondly, as part of an active policy aiming to reach and keep levels of economic activity, or in other words of aggregate demand, which permit reaching full employment.