Fiscal Discipline: A Critical Approach and The Post-Keynesian Alternative
Kerem Kä°per
Fiscaoeconomia, 2023, issue 2
Abstract:
This study examines the fiscal discipline issue, one of neoliberalism's core principles that says that the public budget should always be balanced. The orthodox approach, within the framework of the New Macroeconomic Consensus, takes a passive stance towards fiscal policies and focuses only on price stability. However, it resorts to budget deficits during crisis periods, assuming a stabilizing function. In the wake of crises such as the 2008 global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, economies have relied on budget deficits for recovery. Once the recovery was achieved, fiscal discipline was restored, and the burden of the crisis was shifted to wage earners and low-income segments through austerity policies, meaning orthodox fiscal policies do not directly target employment and fair income distribution. On the other hand, post-Keynesians offer alternative approaches, arguing that full employment and fair income distribution can be achieved through fiscal policies. This study discusses alternative policy proposals against fiscal orthodoxy from the post-Keynesian perspective, considering existing and potential constraints.
Keywords: Fiscal Policy; Budget Deficit; Functional Finance; Modern Monetary Theory; Full Employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 E40 F65 G01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2876862
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fis:journl:230236
DOI: 10.25295/fsecon.1230593
Access Statistics for this article
More articles in Fiscaoeconomia from Tubitak Ulakbim JournalPark (Dergipark)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emre Atsan ().