IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v106y2016i5p35-38.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dealing with Long-Term Deficits

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Feldstein

Abstract

The United States faces a rising future ratio of debt to GDP that, if allowed to continue, would have serious adverse consequences for the American economy. Fortunately, policy changes can increase the size of the future GDP and shrink the future budget deficits. Relatively small reductions in future annual deficits could reverse the increasing ratio of national debt to GDP. Those annual deficit reductions could be best achieved by slowing the growth of Social Security and Medicare and by raising revenue by limiting tax expenditures or increasing the tax on gasoline.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Feldstein, 2016. "Dealing with Long-Term Deficits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 35-38, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:106:y:2016:i:5:p:35-38
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.p20161004
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10605/P2016_1004_ds.zip
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Feldstein & Daniel Feenberg & Maya MacGuineas, 2011. "Capping Individual Tax Expenditure Benefits," NBER Working Papers 16921, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Congressional Budget Office, 2015. "The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2015 to 2025," Reports 49892, Congressional Budget Office.
    3. Congressional Budget Office, 2015. "An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2015 to 2025," Reports 50724, Congressional Budget Office.
    4. Congressional Budget Office, 2015. "An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2015 to 2025," Reports 50724, Congressional Budget Office.
    5. Congressional Budget Office, 2015. "The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2015 to 2025," Reports 49892, Congressional Budget Office.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Han, Zhao, 2021. "Low-frequency fiscal uncertainty," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 639-657.
    2. Oliwia Komada & Krzysztof Makarski & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2021. "Progressing towards efficiency: the role for labor tax progression in reforming social security," GRAPE Working Papers 57, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    3. Chen, Chien-Hsun, 2023. "Taiwan’s Rapidly Aging Population: A Crisis in the Making?," MPRA Paper 116543, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. John Komlos, 2019. "The Real U.S. Unemployment Rate Is Twice the Official Rate, and the Phillips Curve," CESifo Working Paper Series 7859, CESifo.
    5. Thia, Jang Ping, 2020. "Deficits and crowding out through private loan spreads," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 98-107.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert G Murphy & Adam Rohde, 2018. "Rational Bias in Inflation Expectations," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 44(1), pages 153-171, January.
    2. Bofinger, Peter & Schnabel, Isabel & Feld, Lars P. & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Wieland, Volker, 2015. "Zukunftsfähigkeit in den Mittelpunkt. Jahresgutachten 2015/16 [Focus on Future Viability. Annual Report 2015/16]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 201516, September.
    3. Congressional Budget Office, 2018. "CBO’s Projection of Labor Force Participation Rates: Working Paper 2018-04," Working Papers 53616, Congressional Budget Office.
    4. Canyon Bosler & Mary C. Daly & John G. Fernald & Bart Hobijn, 2017. "The Outlook for US Labor-Quality Growth," NBER Chapters, in: Education, Skills, and Technical Change: Implications for Future US GDP Growth, pages 61-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Janet L. Yellen, 2015. "The Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy: a speech at the Economic Club of Washington, Washington, D.C., December 2, 2015," Speech 884, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    6. Per Krusell & Anthony Smith & Joachim Hubmer, 2015. "The historical evolution of the wealth distribution: A quantitative-theoretic investigation," 2015 Meeting Papers 1406, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Pär Stockhammar & Pär Österholm, 2017. "The Impact of US Uncertainty Shocks on Small Open Economies," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 347-368, April.
    8. Joachim Hubmer & Per Krusell & Anthony A. Smith Jr., 2020. "Sources of US Wealth Inequality: Past, Present, and Future," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2020, volume 35, pages 391-455, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Mark Duggan & Gopi Shah Goda & Emilie Jackson, 2019. "The Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Health Insurance Coverage and Labor Market Outcomes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 72(2), pages 261-322, June.
    10. Torsten Schmidt & Roland Döhrn & Daniela Grozea-Helmenstein & Philipp an de Meulen & Martin Micheli & Svetlana Rujin & Lina Zwick, 2015. "Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung im Ausland: Weltkonjunktur weiter aufwärts gerichtet," RWI Konjunkturbericht, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, pages 38, 03.
    11. Schmidt, Torsten & Döhrn, Roland & Grozea-Helmenstein, Daniela & an de Meulen, Philipp & Micheli, Martin & Rujin, Svetlana & Zwick, Lina, 2015. "Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung im Ausland: Weltkonjunktur weiter aufwärts gerichtet," RWI Konjunkturberichte, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, vol. 66(1), pages 5-42.
    12. William R. Cline, 2015. "Estimates of Fundamental Equilibrium Exchange Rates, May 2015," Policy Briefs PB15-8, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    13. Anirvan Banerji & Lakshman Achuthan, 2015. "The “Subpar” Recovery: A Long-standing Misunderstanding," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(2), pages 139-148, March.
    14. John Goering & Christine M. E. Whitehead, 2017. "Fiscal Austerity and Rental Housing Policy in the United States and United Kingdom, 2010–2016," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 875-896, November.
    15. Andrew A. Samwick, 2013. "Donating the Voucher: An Alternative Tax Treatment of Private School Enrollment," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(1), pages 125-160.
    16. Cordes, Joseph J., 2011. "Re-Thinking the Deduction for Charitable Contributions: Evaluating the Effects of Deficit-Reduction Proposals," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 64(4), pages 1001-1024, December.
    17. Jeffrey B. Liebman, 2013. "The Deterioration in the US Fiscal Outlook, 2001-2010," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(1), pages 1-18.
    18. Leonard Burman, 2013. "Pathways to Tax Reform Revisted," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 155, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
    19. Douglas Sutherland & Peter Hoeller & Rossana Merola, 2012. "Fiscal Consolidation: Part 1. How Much is Needed and How to Reduce Debt to a Prudent Level?," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 932, OECD Publishing.
    20. Robert P. Hagemann, 2012. "Fiscal Consolidation: Part 6. What Are the Best Policy Instruments for Fiscal Consolidation?," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 937, OECD Publishing.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • H62 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Deficit; Surplus
    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:106:y:2016:i:5:p:35-38. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.