We assemble a novel data-set on Indian public debt that contains consistently defined aggregate annual components from 1951-2018, and Centre-State security level data from 2000-2018. Using a standard debt-decomposition framework, we quantify the extent to which inflation, real GDP growth,...

We construct a model of endogenous investment specific techological change in which the stock of public capital influences the real price of capital goods. We show that the growth and welfare maximizing tax rates coincide in the planned economy. When factor income taxes finance public investment...

We construct a model of endogenous growth in which public capital financed by distortionary taxes influences investment specific technological change. Our main result is that there exist infinitely many capital and labor tax-subsidy combinations that decentralize the planner's growth rate. Hence...

Governments in both developing and developed economies play an active role in labor markets in the form of providing both formal public sector jobs and employment through public workfare programs. We refer to this as employment targeting. In the context of a simple search and matching friction...

We build a small open economy RBC model with financial frictions to analyze expansionary fiscal consolidations in emerging market economies (EMEs). We calibrate the model to India, which we view as a proto-typical EME. When factor income tax rates are low, a contractionary fiscal shock has an...

Emerging market economy business cycles are typically characterized by high consumption and output volatility, strongly counter-cyclical current accounts, and counter-cyclical real interest rates. Evidence from the wider EME and less developed economy business cycle experience suggests however...

Central banks in emerging markets often grapple with understanding the monetary policy response to an inter-sectoral terms of trade shock. To address this, we develop a three sector closed economy NK-DSGE model calibrated to India. Our framework can be generalized to other emerging markets and...

Governments in EMDEs routinely intervene in agriculture markets to stabilize food prices in the wake of adverse domestic or external shocks. Such interventions typically involve a large increase in the procurement and redistribution of food, which we call a redistributive policy shock. What is...