IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/264599.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimal fiscal policy in a model with efficiency wages: the case of Bulgaria

Author

Listed:
  • Vasilev, Aleksandar

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the effects of fiscal policy in an economy with efficiency wages, consumption taxes and a common income tax rate. Design/methodology/approach: A dynamic general-equilibrium model with the government sector is calibrated to Bulgarian data (1999–2018). Two regimes are compared and contrasted – the exogenous (observed) vs optimal policy (Ramsey) case. Findings: The main findings are as follows: (1) The optimal steady-state income tax rate is zero. (2) The benevolent Ramsey planner provides three times lower amount of the utility-enhancing public services. (3) The optimal steady-state consumption tax needed to finance the optimal level of government spending is 18.7%. Originality/value: The focus of the paper is on the relative importance of consumption vs income taxation, as well as on the provision of utility-enhancing public services. Bulgarian economy was chosen as a case study due to its major dependence on consumption taxation as a source of tax revenue. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2021-0488 .

Suggested Citation

  • Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2022. "Optimal fiscal policy in a model with efficiency wages: the case of Bulgaria," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 0.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:264599
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/264599/1/optimal_fiscal_policy_efficiency_wages_IJSE_accepted.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schmitt-Grohe, Stephanie & Uribe, Martin, 2007. "Optimal simple and implementable monetary and fiscal rules," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 1702-1725, September.
    2. Vasilev Aleksandar, 2018. "Optimal Fiscal Policy with Utility-Enhancing Government Spending, Consumption Taxation and a Common Income Tax Rate: The Case of Bulgaria," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 69(1), pages 43-58, April.
    3. Aleksandar Vasilev & Hristina Manolova, 2019. "Wage Dynamics and Bulgaria Co-Movement and Causality," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 17(1), pages 91-127.
    4. Iván Werning, 2007. "Optimal Fiscal Policy with Redistribution," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 925-967.
    5. Rogerson, Richard, 1988. "Indivisible labor, lotteries and equilibrium," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 3-16, January.
    6. Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2016. "A Real-Business-Cycle model with efficiency wages and fiscal policy: the case of Bulgaria," EconStor Preprints 148413, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    7. Alexopoulos, Michelle, 2004. "Unemployment and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 277-298, March.
    8. Aleksandar Zdravkov Vasilev, 2009. "Business cycles in Bulgaria and the Baltic countries: an RBC approach," International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(2), pages 148-170.
    9. Solow, Robert M., 1979. "Another possible source of wage stickiness," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 79-82.
    10. Michelle Alexopoulos, 2003. "Growth and unemployment in a shirking efficiency wage model," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 36(3), pages 728-746, August.
    11. Aleksandar Vasilev, 2019. "Optimal fiscal policy with environmental tax and pollution abatement spending in a model with utility-enhancing environmental quality: lessons from Bulgaria," Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 24-35, January.
    12. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-444, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2022. "Optimal fiscal policy in a model with reciprocity in labor relations: the case of Bulgaria," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue EarlyCite, pages 1-24.
    2. Aleksandar Vasilev, 2017. "A Real-Business-Cycle Model with Efficiency Wages and a Government Sector: The Case of Bulgaria," Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, vol. 9(4), pages 359-377, December.
    3. Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2016. "A Real-Business-Cycle model with efficiency wages and fiscal policy: the case of Bulgaria," EconStor Preprints 148413, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    4. Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2017. "A Real-Business-Cycle model with reciprocity in labor relations and fiscal policy: the case of Bulgaria," EconStor Preprints 156164, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    5. Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2019. "Insurance-markets Equilibrium with a Non-convex Labor Supply decision, Unobservable Effort, and Efficiency Wages of the "No-shirking" Type," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 0(1 [accept).
    6. Aleksandar Vasilev, 2018. "A Real-Business-Cycle model with reciprocity in labor relations and a government sector," Journal of Economics and Econometrics, Economics and Econometrics Society, vol. 61(2), pages 47-76.
    7. Vasilev Aleksandar, 2020. "Are “fair” wages quantitatively important for business cycle fluctuations in Bulgaria?," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 20(1), pages 91-105, March.
    8. Aleksandar Vasilev, 2021. "A Real-Business-Cycle model with search-and-matching frictions and efficiency ("fair") wages," Journal of Economics and Econometrics, Economics and Econometrics Society, vol. 64(2), pages 1-23.
    9. Gregory E. Givens, 2022. "Unemployment, Partial Insurance, And The Multiplier Effects Of Government Spending," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(2), pages 571-599, May.
    10. Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2018. "Aggregation with non-convex labor supply, unobservable effort, and efficiency wages of the no-shirking type," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 0(1(6)), pages 19-33.
    11. Jean‐Michel Grandmont, 2008. "Negishi–Solow efficiency wages, unemployment insurance and dynamic deterministic indeterminacy," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 4(2), pages 247-272, June.
    12. M Guerrazzi, 2008. "A Dynamic Efficiency-Wage Model with Continuous Effort and Externalities," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 13(2), pages 37-58, September.
    13. Nakajima, Tomoyuki, 2010. "Optimal monetary policy with imperfect unemployment insurance," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 365-387, March.
    14. Danthine, Jean-Pierre & Kurmann, André, 2010. "The business cycle implications of reciprocity in labor relations," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(7), pages 837-850, October.
    15. Nakajima, Tomoyuki, 2006. "Unemployment and indeterminacy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 314-327, January.
    16. David de la Croix & Gregory de Walque & Rafael Wouters, 2006. "Dynamics and monetary policy in a fair wage model of the business cycle," Working Paper Research 98, National Bank of Belgium.
    17. Givens, Gregory E., 2011. "Unemployment insurance in a sticky-price model with worker moral hazard," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 1192-1214, August.
    18. Manash Ranjan Gupta & Priya Brata Dutta, 2022. "Taxation, capital accumulation, environment and unemployment in an efficiency wage model," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 151-198, March.
    19. Aleksandar Vasilev, 2020. "Are labor unions important for business cycle fluctuations? Lessons from Bulgaria," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(1), pages 143-161, March.
    20. Marco Guerrazzi, 2020. "Efficiency-Wage Competition: What Happens as the Number of Players Increases?," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 6(1), pages 13-35, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ramsey policies; Efficiency wages; Unemployment; Bulgaria;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

    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:zbw:espost:264599. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.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.