Fiscal policy and consumption

Abstract

There is little doubt that fiscal policy plays an important role in business cycle fluctuations; however, the ability of fiscal policy measure to work as a countercyclical stimulus has recently been questioned (see Taylor, 2000), in light of the efficiency and transparency of monetary policy interventions. Far from postulating a definitive answer to the debate, the objective of this dissertation is to contribute to a better understanding of the transmission mechanism of fiscal policy shocks, through their interaction with the consumption behaviour of private agents. The fundamental contribution of this thesis is the introduction of different forms of households’ heterogeneity in the analysis of the effects of government expenditure shocks and tax cuts.