The "German view" of expansionary fiscal contractions is that the expansionary expectional effect would outweigh the Kynesian effect of a sever government spending cut. This view relies on consumers behaving according to the permanent income hypothesis; who see spending custs as signals to...

In this paper we ask why was there a consumption boom in Ireland in the late 1980s? We put forward an expalnation, namely, that worsening borrowing conditions led agents to conume more out of disposable income. We explicityly model the economy as consisting of two types of consumers. One type...