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Report (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. M.S. 1993. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-105). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M. Econ.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Xeror copy of typescript. Declaration statement inserted. Includes bibliographical references (leaf [101-103]).

Thesis (M.Econ.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf [101-103]). Also available in print.

The subject of this dissertation is fiscal policy in the United States. In recent years the limitations of monetary policy have become more evident, generating greater interest in the use of fiscal policy as a stabilization tool. Despite considerable advances in the fiscal policy literature, many important questions about the effects and implementation of such policy remain unresolved. This motivates the present work, which explores both topics in the chapters that follow. I begin in the second chapter by estimating Federal Reserve responses to changes in taxes and spending. Monetary responses are a critical determinant of fiscal policy effectiveness since central banks have the ability to offset many of the economic changes resulting from fiscal shocks. Using techniques commonly employed in the fiscal multiplier literature, my results indicate a willingness by monetary policymakers to alter policy directly in response to fiscal shocks in a way that either reinforces or counteracts the resulting effects. In the third and fourth chapters I shift my focus to the conduct of fiscal policy. Specifically, I use Bayesian methods to estimate the response of federal discretionary policy to different macroeconomic variables. I allow for uncertainty about various characteristics of the underlying model which enables me to determine, for example, which variables matter to policymakers; whether policy conduct has changed over time; and whether policy responses are state dependent. My results indicate, among other things, that policy responds countercyclically to changes in the labor market, but only during periods of weak economic activity.

This dissertation consists of two essays in international macroeconomics. The first essay shows that optimal fiscal and monetary policy is time consistent in a standard small open economy. Further, there exist many maturity structures of public debt capable of rendering the optimal policy time consistent. This result is in sharp contrast with that obtained in the context of closed-economy models. In the closed economy, the time consistency of optimal monetary and fiscal policy imposes severe restrictions on public debt in the form of a unique term structure of public debt that governments can leave to their successors at each point in time. The time consistent result is robust: optimal policy is time consistent when both real and nominal bonds have finite horizons. While in a closed economy, governments must have both nominal and real bonds, and have at least real bonds over an infinite horizon to render optimal policy time consistent. The second essay uses a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to theoretically rationalize the empirical finding that sudden stops have weaker effects on outputs when the small open economy is more open to trade. First, welfare costs of sudden stops are decreasing in trade openness. The reason is that when the economy is more open to trade, the economy will have less volatile capital, which leads to less volatile output. In terms of welfare, when the small open economy is more open to trade, the welfare costs of sudden stops will be smaller. Second, sudden stops may be welfare improving to the small open economy. This is because when the representative household is a net borrower in the international capital market, its consumption will be negatively correlated with country spread. Since utility is a concave function of consumption, it must be a convex function of country spread. That is, when the country spread is more volatile, the mean utility is higher. The two findings are robust: they hold with one sector economy model, and two sector economy models with homogenous capital and heterogenous capital. In addition, this paper shows that a counter-cyclical tariff rate policy is not welfare-improving. / Dissertation

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Duke University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Princeton University, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 254-275).

This study attempted to examine the nature of the relationship between high levels of external debt and capital accumulation with the case study of Rwanda.

This study attempted to examine the nature of the relationship between high levels of external debt and capital accumulation with the case study of Rwanda.