ECON Ch 27-30 Flashcards
Who makes fiscal policy and what can they change?
Government. President, Congress.
Can change G and can change T
Changing G directly affects AD
Changing T changes income, affects consumption, indirect effect on AD
Fiscal policy
Changes in federal taxes and purchases that are intended to achieve macroeconomic policy objectives
Tax reform and government budget
Budget
With government, we care about spending and cost
The government budget is made up of costs (G) and revenue (tax revenue —T)
Short term. Annual or quarterly basis
Budget deficit, balanced budget budget surplus
Budget is When G > T. Spends more than it collects.
Balanced is when G=T
Surplus is when G<T. Collects more than it spends.
Issue debt when has a budget deficit
Debt
When in a deficit, treasury finances its activities by selling Treasury securities.
Total value of those securities outstanding is known as the national debt.
Government prints bond sells it. Use that money now. Debt is the sum of all outstanding US govt bonds, 20 trillion inu 2017
Debt : GDP ratio over 100%
Debt ceiling
Raise debt ceiling to prevent government shut down.
When you hit debt ceiling, can raise taxes, lower spending, or ask Congress to borrow more money (sell more bonds)
Why does debt go up?
Fiscal issue.
Budget is expansionary. G up, AE up, Y up or T down, C up, AE up, Y up
Other reason is deficit. G up, tax down increase deficit and debt.
The cost of increasing Y is increased debt and a greater deficit.
What happens to government deficit during a recession?
It will automatically have a greater deficit. Y goes down, so this results in G going up as more poor people need government help. T goes down because with less income, less taxes.
So budget deficit automatically rises during recession.
Discretionary federal policy
Intentional actions the government takes to change spending or taxes
During a recession, since Y goes down, do a stimulus package to increase Y. G up and T down.
But this causes further deficit
Expansionary federal policy
Increase G and/or decrease T
Positives are that Y goes up and U goes down
Negatives are that prices go up, deficit goes up, crowding out effect (G goes up, causing I to go down)
If real GDP is below potential GDP, it will do expansionary FP to restore long run EQ, decreasing P
On the price vs GDP graph, shift AD to the right. P and GDP up, u down
Contractionary fiscal policy
Decreasing government spending or increasing taxes.
If real gdp is too high, will do this to restore long run EQ
Shifts AD to the left.
P down, Y down, U up
Countercyclical fiscal policy
Expansionary during recession to increase Y or contractionary when too much inflation to lower the price level.
Problems with fiscal policy compared to monetary policy
Timing is harder due to legislative and implementation delay. And crowding out.
Crowding out
G going up causes I to go down
The goods market (AE vs Y) and the money market (r and M) interact. When G goes up, AE goes up in the goods market, so Y goes up (multiplier). People are richer so there is an effect on the money market. Money demand increases, so r goes up. When r goes up, I goes down
So, G going up shrinks the other sectors. Can’t expand Y as much as we wanted to.
So, in the short run, AD doesn’t shift quite as far right as we’d like.
In the long run, increase in G has no effect on real GDP. reducing c, I, NX will offset increase in G. In long run, returns to potential GDP, even without government intervention. Long run effect is simply to increase size of government sector.
Government spending multiplier
Government purchases multiplier = change in eq Y / change in G
Or 1/(1-MPC). If G up by $10, and say MPC =.8, then Y up by 1/(1-.8)= 5 Times. So Y = $50. 50/10=5 which is our multiplier.
Tax cut multiplier
Change in eq Y / change in taxes.
Also MPC / (1-MPC). Say we decrease taxes by 10,and MPC = .8, then multiplier is .8/.2=4 so, Y up by 40. As c goes up by 10,then multiply by 5to get 40
C spends money slower, so the G going up increases Y more.
Automatic stabilizers
System automatically has Y go up if In a recession (Y goes down) by increasing government spending automatically to poor people because more poor people and decreasing taxes because less income to tax off of.
If we get poorer, we lose Y. Y going down results in T going down which causes C to go up and Y to go up.
Phillips curve
A curve showing the short run and long run relationship between the unemployment rate and inflation rate.
Trade off between price and unemployment in the short run.
Short run Phillips curve
P on the Y axis, u on the x axis
Say we shift AD to the right in our AD frame work.
Then it causes lower unemployment but higher price.
So Phillips curve will be downward sloping. For low unemployment, higher price. For high U, lower P.
Long run Phillips curve
P on Y axis and U on the x axis.
Will be a vertical line. In the long run, employment determined by output, which in the long run, doesn’t depend on the price level.
So, same unemployment, natural rate, regardless of the price. No chclical u, but still structural and friticional.
Open economy vs closed economy
Open economy has interactions with other countries. Closed economy is closed, no interactions in trade or in finance.
Balance of payments
A good way to understand economic interactions with other countries is by examining the balance of payments. This is the record of a country’s trade with other countries in goods, services, and assets.
Sum of current account, financial account, and capital account
Must equal zero.
In 2014, US spent 389billion dollars more on goods, services,a Nd other current account items than it received. Money must have been used to buy us assets or to keep as us currency holdings oversees. This difference is called statistical discrepancy.
Current account
Part of the balance of payments that records the country’s NX (sum of balance on trade and balance of services), net income on investments and net transfers.
Financial account
Part of the balance of payments that records purchases of assets a country has made abroad and foreign purchases of assets in the country.
Records long term flows.
Capital outflows are purchases of assets overseas by Americans
Capital inflows are purchases of American assets by foreigners.
Net capital flows. Net foreign investment. Capital outflows - inflows.
Capital account
Part of the balance of payments that r cords relatively minor transactions such as migrants transfers and sales and purchases of non produced, non financial assets.