The Fiscal Framework of Monetary Policy

This paper illustrates the importance of the fiscal framework for monetary analysis by discussing three separate issues. I begin by examining how the fiscal framework changes the macroeconomic equilibrium associated with different steady state rates of money growth. This includes a summary of research that I have presented elsewhere and comments on several additional aspects of the way in which the fiscal structure destroys the neutrality of monetary policy. The second section deals with the short-run impact of changes in monetary policy. Here again the fiscal structure complicates the economy's response to monetary policy. The final section looks at the effect of the fiscal structure on the central bank's choice of monetary policies. Because fiscal structures affect the costs and benefits of monetary policies, they are likely to influence the policies adopted.