Volume 6, Issue 1 March 2010

Fiscal Stimulus and the Promise of Future Spending Cuts

Abstract

Recent evaluations of the fiscal stimulus packages enacted in 2009 in the United States and Europe such as Cogan et al. (2009) and Cwik and Wieland (2009) suggest that the GDP effects will be modest due to crowding out of private consumption and investment. Corsetti, Meier, and Müller (2009, 2010) argue that spending shocks are typically followed by consolidations with substantive spending cuts, which enhance the short-run stimulus effect. This note investigates the implications of this argument for the estimated impact of recent stimulus packages and the case for discretionary fiscal policy.

Authors

  • Volker Wieland

JEL codes

  • C52
  • E62

Other papers in this issue

Charles Freedman and Michael Kumhof and Douglas Laxton and Dirk Muir

Giancarlo Corsetti and Andrew Lewin and Frank Smets and Carl Walsh

Giancarlo Corsetti and André Meier and Gernot J. Müller

Andrew Levin and David López-Salido and Edward Nelson and Tack Yun