TY  - JOUR
AU  - Barro,Robert J.
TI  - Reflections on Ricardian Equivalence
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5502
PY  - 1996
Y2  - March 1996
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5502
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5502.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Robert J. Barro
Department of Economics
Littauer Center 218
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-3203
Fax: 617/496-8629
E-Mail: rbarro@harvard.edu
AB  - The Ricardian equivalence proposition for public debt in my 1974 JPE paper is related to the discussions in Ricardo's Funding System, Smith's Wealth of Nations, and a number of treatments in macroeconomics from the 1950s to the 1970s.  Useful extensions of the basic invariance proposition involve tax smoothing (in the context of distorting taxation) and the determinants of the maturity and other characteristics of the debt structure (in an environment of uncertainty).
ER  -