Balanced‐Budget Rules and Aggregate Instability: The Role of Consumption Taxes in a Monetary Economy

Abstract

In a real macroeconomic model, it is well established that a balanced‐budget rule based on consumption tax can rule out indeterminacy. The present paper shows, both analytically and numerically, that such a balanced‐budget rule induces indeterminacy and, hence, aggregate instability in a standard one‐sector cash‐in‐advance economy. From a policy perspective, our results raise possible concerns that balanced‐budget rules with endogenous consumption tax could have destabilizing effects under the current over‐easy monetary environment.