Research by Alexandre B. Cunha

The Welfare Costs of Business Cycle Smoothing
(with Eurilton Araújo)

Abstract: We investigate the welfare implications of macroeconomic policies that eliminate output volatility. We conclude that such policies can lead to welfare losses, even when compared with a simple macroeconomic policy that prescribes constant rates for taxes and money supply growth. We quantify the losses in terms of percentage points of total consumption. We find that they are small, as often found in the related literature.
Keywords: optimal policy, business cycles, welfare.
JEL classification: E32, E61.

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