In this paper we look at the long run growth implications of labour market distortions. The analysis is cast in a model where growth is generated by two alternative sources of enhancing labour productivity. The first is that workers before entering the job market may undertake schooling....

Online appendix for the Review of Economic Dynamics article

This paper evaluates the extent to which a DSGE model can account for the impact of tax policy shocks. We estimate the response of macroeconomic aggregates to anticipated and unanticipated tax shocks in the U.S. and find that unanticipated tax cuts have persistent expansionary effects on output,...

We study the effects of fiscal policy interventions in a liquidity trap in a model with nominal rigidities and an interest rate rule. In a liquidity trap caused by a self-fulfilling state of low confidence, higher government spending has deflationary effects that reduce the spending multiplier...

This paper estimates the dynamic effects of changes in taxes in the United States. We dis- tinguish between the effects of changes in personal and corporate income taxes using a new narrative account of federal tax liability changes in these two tax components. We develop an estimator in which...

Credit Channels in a Liquidity Trap

We provide empirical evidence on the dynamics effects of tax liability changes in the United States. We distinguish between surprise and anticipated tax changes using a timing-convention. We document that pre-announced but not yet implemented tax cuts give rise to contractions in output,...

Karel Mertens is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University. Karel's research has been concerned with monetary and fiscal policy. Morten O. Ravn is a Professor of Economics at University College London and a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, London. Ravn's research...