Monetary Commitment and the Level of Public Debt

Stefano Gnocchi and Luisa Lambertini

Staff Working Papers from Bank of Canada

Abstract: We analyze the interaction between committed monetary policy and discretionary fiscal policy in a model with public debt, endogenous government expenditures, distortive taxation and nominal rigidities. Fiscal decisions lack commitment but are Markov-perfect. Monetary commitment to an interest rate path leads to a unique level of debt. This level of debt is positive if the central bank adopts closed-loop strategies that raise the real interest rate when inflation is above target owing to fiscal deviations. More aggressive defence of the inflation target implies lower debt and higher welfare. Simple Taylor-type interest rate rules achieve welfare levels similar to those generated by sophisticated closed-loop strategies.

Keywords: Credibility; Fiscal policy; Inflation targets; Monetary policy framework (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 E32 E52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-dge, nep-mac and nep-mon
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bca:bocawp:16-3

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