Private and Public Consumption and Counter-Cyclical Fiscal Policy

This paper bulds a closed-economy NK-DSGE model with no capital, in which consumers value both private and public consumption and fiscal policy is determined by a feedback rule responding to output gap. We analyse how different degrees of substitutatibility/complementarity between private and public consumption and a pro/counter-cyclical stance of fiscal policy affect equilbrium determinacy and the response of the economy to a wide range of shocks. Results show that determinacy is ensured by counter-cyclical fiscal policy under complementarity; increasing substitutability also pro-cyclical stance becomes stable. Differences can be observed also in response to shocks.