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Fiscal Backing for Price Stability in a Monetary Union
Bartosz Maćkowiak
Sebastian Schmidt
Journal: Macroeconomics (Forthcoming)
Abstract
Fiscal backing is the idea that for the price level to be uniquely determined, fiscal policy must
be active (as in Leeper, 1991) at least in some states of the world. We extend the fiscal theory of
the price level to the case of a heterogenous monetary union. Different combinations of national
fiscal policies and a common fiscal policy with “Eurobonds” amount to active fiscal policy for
the union. They all yield price level determinacy, but can have very different implications for
the effects of fiscal and monetary policy. We propose how to coordinate the national policies
and the common policy to provide fiscal backing reliably.