Fiscal sustainability is one of the most pressing policy issues of our time. Yet it remains difficult to quantify. Official debt is plagued with a number of measurement difficulties since its measurement reflects the choice of words, not policies. And forming the fiscal gap-the imbalance in the...

We characterize and demonstrate a solution method for an optimal commodity (sales) tax problem consisting of multiple goods, heterogeneous agents, and a nonconvex policy maker optimization problem. Our approach allows for more dimensions of heterogeneity than has been previously possible,...

This paper proposes a channel through which increased openness to international trade can increase a country’s long-run incentive to create inflation. The theoretical justification for this channel is the well known “beggar thy neighbor” incentive, and its dominance relies on a monetary...