价格水平的财政决定理论:拓展与争议

价格水平的财政决定理论(FTPL)认为通货膨胀不是一种货币现象,而是一种财政现象,价格水平由政府预算约束在均衡处相等来决定。本文对这一价格水平决定的新理论进行了梳理和评述,阐明了FTPL的新进展及其在发展过程中遇到的挑战和困难,以此为该理论能更有效地运用于现实提供改进的思路。并且,为我国进一步稳定物价水平和平抑经济波动提供更多的政策选择和政策搭配方案。     

基于FTPL的中国财政可持续性研究

本文从价格水平决定的财政理论(FTPL)出发,从理论上区分了FTPL与传统理论对政府预算等式的实现机理。通过基本盈余率与债务负担率的关系分析,对我国1978~2010年间的财政可持续性进行了检验,实证结论表明,我国的经验证据并不能证实FTPL的有效性,同时得到了我国财政是可持续的结论。     

财政与一般价格水平的决定——价格决定的财政理论综述

传统的货币论认为价格水平主要由货币政策决定,但是它忽略了政府预算约束对价格水平的影响。价格决定的财政理论批判了传统模型中价格均衡的不可决定性,提出了新的均衡条件,即实际政府净债务应当和实际政府剩余相等,这个均衡条件赋予了政府选择实际价格路径的能力。     

财政政策与价格水平的决定

价格水平是如何决定的呢 ?是否正如弗里德曼曾经说过的“通货膨胀总是 ,而且永远是一个货币现象”一样 ,通货膨胀仅仅是一个货币现象呢 ?从 2 0世纪 90年代开始 ,人们纷纷给出了不同的看法。本文通过两个模型给出了价格水平决定的财政理论 ,指出价格水平由政府债券的实际值与政府财政剩余相等来决定     

中国的财政赤字与通货膨胀:1952—2012

我国财政收支持续近30年的赤字状态,长期赤字如果不能以税收收入作为担保,政府必然最终会通过征收铸币税的方式来弥补,在政府的举债能力不受到任何限制情况下,极有可能会引起恶性通货膨胀。基于此,我们从政府跨期预算约束方程着手,建立一个理论模型和分析框架,从理论上探讨我国财政赤字与通货膨胀之间的关系,并进行相关计量检验和实证分析。结论表明,在当前政府融资体制安排下,我国的通货膨胀很大程度上是一种财政现象,财政政策在价格水平决定中发挥主导作用,货币政策处于从属地位。如果想要从根本上治愈周期性的通货膨胀,就必须进行相应的财政政策调整、财政体制改革和货币体制改革,健全政府融资体制。     

政府公共资本投资的长期经济增长效应

本文首先建立一个包含政府公共资本投资的两部门内生增长模型,并把公共资本投资分为政府物质资本投资和人力资本投资,从而对公共资本投资的长期经济增长效应进行理论分析。结论是,两种形式的公共资本投资对长期经济增长都可能具有正效应也可能具有负效应,取决于民间经济主体消费跨时替代弹性大小。其次,我们利用向量自回归分析框架,对我国1978—2004年间公共资本投资对长期经济增长的影响作实证分析。结论是,我国两种形式的公共资本投资与经济增长之间存在着长期均衡关系,其中政府公共物质资本投资对长期经济增长的正影响更为显著,而政府公共人力资本投资对长期经济增长的正影响较小,且在短期内不利于经济增长。这一结论对我国今后科学制定财政政策和选择公共投资领域都具有重要意义。     

不确定性下公共安全的经济学分析

本文把公共安全水平纳入效用函数和生产函数,由此建立了一个随机内生经济增长模型.以随机动态最优化作为基本工具,确定了均衡状态下经济均衡增长率、个人消费与财富比以及资本和债券份额.同时,还分析了经济均衡时随机扰动和个人公共安全参与度对经济增长和社会福利的影响.     

不确定性下公共安全的经济学分析

本文把公共安全水平纳入效用函数和生产函数,由此建立了一个随机内生经济增长模型。以随机动态最优化作为基本工具,确定了均衡状态下经济均衡增长率、个人消费与财富比以及资本和债券份额。同时,还分析了经济均衡时随机扰动和个人公共安全参与度对经济增长和社会福利的影响。     

最优货币政策与经济增长

本文在新古典内生增长理论的框架内,建立一个带有资本累积的世代交叠模型进行研究发现,托宾效应总是具有可行性,弗里德曼规则反而是次优的;中央银行货币政策的重心仍然是控制货币供应量,通过货币扩张来促进真实和名义GDP增长.     

公共资本投资、内生经济增长与合理政府债务规模*

本文基于一个具有内生增长机制的三部门世代交叠模型,讨论了政府举债为公共投资进行融资时经济的长期均衡;同时,通过数值模拟方法考察了我国的均衡政府债务规模及其影响因素。结果表明：在特定条件下,经济系统存在一个正的均衡政府债务-产出比重,该债务比重水平明显受到公共投资—产出比重、公共投资的债务融资比重、民间资本产出弹性等参数的影响。但是,均衡政府债务比重并不是无限上升的,当上述参数超过特定临界值时,经济系统无法达到均衡,政府债务-产出之比将持续上升,财政将不可持续。另外,当民间资本产出弹性较低时,较高的均衡政府债务比重可能导致经济运行动态无效率。数值模拟结果还显示,基于不同的假设情形,我国的均衡政府债务-产出比重均在不同程度上高于当前实际的政府债务规模,这为我国在未来期间实施扩张性财政政策提供了有利的依据。     

The fiscal theory of the price level and initial government debt

It is widely believed that the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level (FTPL) does not work in an environment in which initial government debt is zero. This paper demonstrates that this view is incorrect when the government issues a set of financial assets restricted to standard nominal debt contracts and money. In particular, it is possible to define a non-Ricardian fiscal policy for which the set of equilibrium price sequences under non-Ricardian fiscal policy is a proper subset of the set of equilibrium price sequences under Ricardian fiscal policy.     

Intertemporal Budget Policies and Macroeconomic Adjustment in Indebted Open Economies

This paper analyzes the role of government intertemporal budget policies in a growing open economy including nominal assets in the presence of an upward sloping supply of debt. This introduces transitional dynamics that influence the effects of government policy instruments on economic growth and the long term fiscal liability. It is shown that capital income taxes or a combination of tax‐cum‐expenditure or government expenditure alone can balance the long term intertemporal government budget constraint. However, those results are shown to depend critically upon the extent of distortion in capital flows brought about the upward sloping supply of debt.     

FISCAL POLICIES IN AN INTERTEMPORAL DISEQUILIBRIUM MACROECONOMIC MODEL

A two-period macroeconomic model where consumption and investment decisions are given microeconomic foundations is presented. The model is used to analyse the effects of both current and anticipated fiscal expansion; careful attention is paid to the implications of the government's intertemporal budget constraint. It is shown that anticipated fiscal expansion may, in certain circumstances, be expansionary. Also, current fiscal expansion, if financed by bonds which are retired through future money creation, may be contractionary.     

Intertemporal budget policies in an endogenous growth model with nominal assets

Intertemporal budget policies are assessed in an endogenous growth model with nominal assets. The paper provides relative rankings of policies and policy instruments in terms of the tax liabilities of the private sector necessary to guarantee intertemporal government budget solvency and in terms of the welfare of the representative agent. The role of nominal assets is shown to be of relative importance.     

Are government bonds net wealth? intertemporal optimization and the government budget constraint

Full integration of the government sector's intertemporal budget constraint into the private sector's intertemporal budget constraint implies the Ricardian equivalence proposition associated with Barro (1974) is valid. Private sector holdings of government bonds are not net wealth. Previous tests of the equivalence proposition estimate Keynesian consumption relationships augmented by alternative measures of government liabilities. Decisive results have not been obtained. The test presented here uses a formulation of the permanent income model to test the integration of the government's intertemporal budget constraint into the private sector's intertemporal budget constraint. The explicit use of a forward looking model of consumption imposes constraints on the equation estimated and on construction of the data; the present test is a significant improvement. The results of this test do not support the equivalence proposition.     

Lindahl Pricing, Nonrival Infrastructure, and Endogenous Growth

The paper constructs a model of endogenous growth where infrastructure is an accumulable stock generating a nonrival input service. A typical market economy cannot attain the socially optimum steady state path, since nonrivalry precludes competitive pricing of infrastructure. However, there exist agent specific prices for the infrastructural service, a price for the infrastructural stock, a rate of interest, and a subsidy for the representative household that can sustain the optimal path as a dynamic Lindahl equilibrium. The rates of return from physical and infrastructural capital equal the rate of interest. Investment programs are socially optimum. The government's budget is balanced.     

The effects of alternative fiscal policies on the intertemporal government budget constraint

This article presents the effects of alternative fiscal policies on the intertemporal government budget constraint when the time horizon of the policy maker varies. I show that the wealth effect associated with cuts in the skill-adjusted labor income tax rate improves the intertemporal budget balance, whereas the intertemporal substitution effect associated with the physical capital income tax rate deteriorates the intertemporal budget. Under plausible parameter values, the tax rate on skill-adjusted labor income cannot by itself balance the intertemporal budget at all horizons.     

THE PRICE LEVEL, THE QUANTITY THEORY OF MONEY, AND THE FISCAL THEORY OF THE PRICE LEVEL

This paper examines price‐level determination from the perspective of portfolio choice. Arbitrages among money balances, bonds, and investment goods determine their relative demands. Returns to real balance holdings and after‐tax returns to investment goods determine the relative values of nominal and real assets. Because expectations of government policies ultimately determine the expected returns to both nominal and real assets, the price level depends on interactions among current and expected future monetary and fiscal policies. The quantity theory and the fiscal theory emerge as special cases produced by restricting both the margins and the policies considered.     

Fiscal policy under a minimum‐time objective

In an endogenous growth model, we characterize the fiscal policy driven by a minimum‐time objective of economic development. We find that in equilibrium government should levy the highest possible consumption taxes, reduce public expenditures to the lowest possible level, and keep labor income tax rate and capital income tax rate satisfy a substitution relationship at the balanced budget constraint. We also identify the condition under which income tax rate should be set to zero. We further find that the equilibrium fiscal policy is equivalent to the growth‐maximizing fiscal policy, whereas it generally deviates from the welfare‐maximizing fiscal policy. We hence identify a circumstance where setting the policy goal of reaching an economic‐performance target as soon as possible cannot be justified in the sense of maximizing the welfare of households.     

Optimal fiscal and monetary policy with sticky wages and sticky prices

We determine the optimal degree of price inflation volatility when nominal wages are sticky and the government uses state-contingent inflation to finance government spending. We address this question in a well-understood Ramsey model of fiscal and monetary policy, in which the benevolent planner has access to labor income taxes, nominally risk-free debt, and money creation. Our main result is that sticky wages alone make price stability optimal in the face of shocks to the government budget, to a degree quantitatively similar as sticky prices alone. Key for our results is an equilibrium restriction between nominal price inflation and nominal wage inflation that holds trivially in a Ramsey model featuring only sticky prices. Our results thus show that when nominal wages are sticky, setting real wages as close as possible to their efficient path is a more important goal of optimal monetary policy than is financing innovations in the government budget via state-contingent inflation. A second important result is that the nominal interest rate can be used to indirectly tax the rents of monopolistic labor suppliers. Taken together, our results uncover features of Ramsey fiscal and monetary policy in the presence of a type of labor market imperfection that is widely-believed to be important.