Contributions to Political Economy Advance Access originally published online on March 29, 2006
Contributions to Political Economy 2006 25(1):91-111; doi:10.1093/cpe/bzl002
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE EBB AND FLOW OF FISCAL ACTIVISM
Università di Napoli "Federico II"
During the last quarter of the 20th Century, the conventional wisdom prevailing in academic, political and financial circles was definitely against government deficits. At the turn of the century, however, a substantial recourse to deficit spending practices in the United States reopened the debate on the usefulness of countercyclical fiscal policies. This essay discusses the main contents of this debate, reviewing the contributions to various symposiums held at a number of U.S. Federal Reserve Banks. A comparison with the views on this issue prevailing in Europe is also provided.