Fiscal policy is the measures taken by the government to stabilize the economy by changing the amount of revenues and/or expenditures of the state budget.

The objectives of fiscal policy are to ensure:

1) stable economic growth;

2) full employment resources (primarily solving the problem of cyclical unemployment);

3) stable price level (solving the problem of inflation).

Fiscal policy is the government's policy of regulating, first of all, aggregate demand by influencing the amount of aggregate spending. However, some fiscal policy instruments can be used to influence aggregate supply through influencing the level of business activity. Fiscal policy is carried out by the government.

The instruments of fiscal policy are expenditures and revenues of the state budget, namely: government procurement, taxes, transfers.

There are two types of fiscal policy: expansionary and contractionary.

Expansionary fiscal policy is used during a recession. Its goal is to reduce the recessionary output gap and reduce the unemployment rate. Her tools:

1) increase in government procurement;

2) tax reduction;

3) increase in transfers.

Contractionary fiscal policy is used during a boom. The goal is to reduce the inflationary output gap and reduce inflation, and is aimed at reducing aggregate demand.

Tools:

Reduction in government procurement;

Increase in taxes;

Reducing transfers.

In addition, fiscal policy is distinguished:

1) discretionary;

2) non-discretionary (automatic).

Discretionary budget – tax policy– legislative change by the government in the amount of public procurement, taxes and transfers in order to stabilize the economy.

Automatic fiscal policy is associated with the action of built-in (automatic) stabilizers - instruments whose value does not change, but the very presence of which (their built-in economic system) automatically stabilizes it, stimulating business activity during a recession and restraining it during overheating. These include:

1) Income tax;

2) Indirect tax;

3) Unemployment benefits;

4) Poverty benefit.

Income tax works as follows:

during a recession, the level of business activity decreases and the value tax revenue decreases, and when the economy “overheats”, when the actual output is at its maximum, tax revenues increase.

Note that the tax rate remains unchanged. However, taxes are withdrawals from the economy. It turns out that during a recession, withdrawals are minimal, and during a boom, they are maximum.

Thus, due to the presence of taxes, the economy automatically “cools down” when it overheats and “heats up” during a recession.

Effects of indirect taxes VAT:

During a recession, sales volumes are reduced, and since VAT is an indirect tax, part of the price of a product, tax revenues from indirect taxes (withdrawals from the economy) are also reduced.

During a boom, on the contrary, since total incomes grow, sales volume increases, and indirect tax revenues increase, the economy automatically stabilizes.

Unemployment and poverty benefits. Their total payments increase during recessions (as people lose their jobs). and declines during a boom, when there is “overemployment” and rising costs.

These benefits are transfers, i.e. injections in the economy. Their payment contributes to income growth. And, therefore, spending stimulates economic recovery during a recession. A decrease in the total amount of these payments during the boom has a restraining effect on the economy.

The advantages of fiscal policy include:

Multiplier effect. All fiscal policy instruments have a multiplier effect on the value of equilibrium aggregate output.

No external lag (delay). The external lag is the time between the decision to change a policy and the appearance of the first results of its change. When the government decides to change fiscal policy instruments and these measures come into effect, the result of their impact on the economy manifests itself quite quickly.

Availability of automatic stabilizers. Since these stabilizers are built-in, the government does not need to take special measures to stabilize the economy. Stabilization (smoothing out cyclical fluctuations in the economy) occurs automatically.

Disadvantages of fiscal policy:

Displacement effect.

Economic sense This effect is as follows: an increase in budget expenditures during the period of collapse and/or a reduction in budget revenues (taxes) leads to a multiplier growth of total income, which increases the demand for money and increases the interest rate on the money market (credit price).

And since loans are primarily taken out by firms, an increase in the cost of loans leads to a reduction in private investment, i.e. to “crowding out” part of the investment expenditures of firms, which leads to a reduction in output.

Presence of internal lag.

This is the period of time between the need to change a policy and the decision to change it. The decision on changes is made by the government, and their implementation is made by law. These approvals require a long period of time. Moreover, it comes into force only from the next financial year, and during this time the situation in the economy may change.

Uncertainty.

Relates to the problem of identification economic situation,

problems by what amount the GDP instruments should be changed

Budget deficit.

Tools that stimulate BNP carried out during a recession are an increase in government purchases and transfers, i.e. an increase in budget expenditures and a decrease in revenues (taxes), which leads to an increase in the state budget deficit.

50. Budget deficit, its causes, types. Financing the budget deficit. State debt: causes, types, consequences.

State budget deficit and its types:

There are structural, cyclical and actual budget deficits.

Structural deficit is the difference between government spending and budget revenues that would have come in under conditions of full employment of resources under the existing taxation system.

structural budget deficit = government purchases – tax rate * potential GDP.

The cyclical deficit is the difference between the actual and structural deficit.

There are current and primary budget deficits.

The current one is the overall state budget deficit.

Primary – the difference between the total (current) deficit and the amount of payments to service the public debt.

Ways to finance the state budget deficit

3 ways to finance the state budget deficit.

1. The essence, goals and instruments of fiscal policy.

2. Discretionary fiscal policy: essence, defects.

3. Non-discretionary fiscal policy. Built-in stabilizers.

4. Supply-oriented fiscal policy. Laffer effect.

1. Essence, goals and instruments of fiscal policy

Fiscal (budgetary and tax) policy is aimed at regulating and preventing undesirable shifts in aggregate demand and aggregate supply through changes in the amount of government spending and taxes, that is, by manipulating the state budget. It is aimed at ensuring economic growth, increasing employment, reducing inflation, increasing public welfare and achieving other macroeconomic goals.

To achieve these goals, the following main fiscal policy instruments:

1) Government spending

transfer payments,

government procurement of goods and services.

At the same time, a distinction is made between purchases for the state’s own needs (state orders), which are relatively stable, and more volatile purchases to regulate the market - decreasing during periods of recovery and expansion and expanding during phases of recession and depression.

2) Taxes– direct and indirect.

Criteria for the effectiveness of using these tools(and, therefore, the effectiveness of fiscal policy itself) are:

the size of the budget deficit and the rate of increase in public debt;

level of tax collection (and other non-tax budget revenues);

execution level budget obligations governments;

the volume of financial resources diverted to service the public debt, etc.

In our country, a specific indicator can also be the amount of overdue debt for wages, pensions, social benefits, as well as for payment of government orders.

The main ideas of fiscal policy are reflected by three rules:

if there is underemployment, then the unemployment rate should be reduced by expansionary fiscal policy– this is a stimulating fiscal policy (lowering taxes, increasing government spending and combining these measures, which can lead to expanded supply and increased economic potential);

If there is an increase in the general price level, then the task is to suppress inflation by means restrictive fiscal policy– this is a restrictive, restrictive fiscal policy (reducing government spending, increasing taxes);

if full employment and price stability are achieved, then the budget must maintain a balance between aggregate demand and aggregate supply (market-neutral fiscal policy).

The set of fiscal policy instruments used by the government and the very direction of their use are decisively dependent on the type of economic system (and, above all, on the relationship between different forms of ownership), the goals of the ruling party, and the phase of the economic and political cycle. They must be closely coordinated with the monetary policy pursued in the country and take into account the general economic situation that has developed in it.

When pursuing fiscal policy, the government can focus on regulating both aggregate demand and aggregate supply.

Fiscal policy oriented towards aggregate demand is divided into discretionary and non-discretionary (automatic).

Fiscal policy: goals, types, tools. Discretionary policy and built-in stabilizers

Fiscal policy represents government measures to stabilize the economy by changing the amount of income and (or) expenses state budget . Therefore, fiscal policy is also called fiscal policy.

Fiscal policy goals like any stabilization policy aimed at smoothing out cyclical fluctuations in the economy, are:

• ensuring stable economic growth;
• full employment labor resources- solving the problem of unemployment;
• ensuring a stable price level is a solution to the problem of inflation.

Fiscal policy instruments are the expenses and revenues of the state budget, namely: government procurement; taxes; transfers.

Depending on the mode of operation of fiscal policy instruments, it is divided into non-discretionary and discretionary policies. Non-discretionary policy called the policy of “built-in stabilizers.” These stabilizers are: progressive system

taxation, indirect taxes, various transfer benefits. At the same time, the amounts of receipts and payments automatically change if the situation in the economy changes. Discretionary policy

• is a conscious change in taxes and government spending by the legislature to ensure macroeconomic stability and achieve macroeconomic goals. The main instruments of discretionary fiscal policy are:
• changing the volume of tax withdrawals by introducing or eliminating taxes or changing the tax rate;
• implementation of employment programs at the expense of the state budget aimed at providing employment to the unemployed; implementation, which include the payment of old-age benefits, disability benefits, benefits for low-income families, education expenses, etc. These programs help maintain aggregate demand and stabilize economic development, when incomes are reduced and need worsens.

Depending on the state of the economy and the government’s goals, fiscal policy is divided into :

• stimulating, carried out with the aim of overcoming the recession and involving an increase in government spending and a reduction in taxes;
• contractionary, designed to limit the cyclical recovery and involves cutting government spending and increasing taxes.

Like private investment, government spending and taxes have a multiplier effect. cartoon effect .

When government spending changes, a chain of secondary, tertiary, etc. is obtained. consumer spending (an unemployed person, having received benefits from the state, bought bread from a farmer, a farmer bought boots, etc.), which entail an increase in the national product. Government expenditure multiplier shows the increase in gross national product (GNP) as a result of an increase in government spending per unit. The higher the value of the government spending multiplier, the more powerful a means of regulating the national economy is discretionary fiscal policy.

Like government spending, taxes also have a multiplier effect. Thus, when pursuing a policy of containment, an increase in taxes makes a decrease in the national product inevitable. But the decrease in consumption, aggregate demand and GNP will occur by an amount less than the increase in taxes, since tax multiplier equal to the ratio of the marginal propensity to consume to the marginal propensity to save. And in accordance with Keynes's basic psychological law

, if taxes increase, then it is not so much consumption that decreases as savings (refusal of savings). Thus, .

Fiscal policy taxes have less of a impact on aggregate demand than government spending represents measures taken by the government to stabilize the economy by changing the amount of revenues and/or expenditures of the state budget. Therefore, fiscal policy is also called fiscal policy. Fiscal policy is part financial policy

Fiscal policy– a policy of manipulating the budget, spending and taxes in order to change real output and employment, control inflation and accelerate economic growth.

Goals fiscal policy, like any stabilization (countercyclical) policy aimed at smoothing out cyclical fluctuations in the economy, is to ensure:

1) stable economic growth;

2) full employment of resources (primarily solving the problem of cyclical unemployment);

3) stable price level (solving the problem of inflation).

Fiscal policy is the government's policy of regulating, first of all, aggregate demand. Regulation of the economy in this case occurs by influencing the amount of total expenditures. However, some fiscal policy instruments can be used to influence aggregate supply through influencing the level of business activity.

Tools Fiscal policy consists of expenditures and revenues of the state budget, namely:

1) government procurement;

2) taxes;

3) transfers.

The impact of fiscal policy instruments on aggregate demand varies. From the aggregate demand formula (AD = C + I + G + Xn) it follows that state procurements are a component of aggregate demand, so their change has an impact direct impact on aggregate demand, and taxes and transfers provide indirect impact on aggregate demand, changing the amount of consumer spending (C) and investment spending (I).

At the same time, an increase in government purchases increases aggregate demand, and a reduction in them leads to a decrease in aggregate demand.

An increase in transfers also increases aggregate demand. On the one hand, since with an increase in social transfer payments, the personal income of households increases, and, consequently, other things being equal, disposable income increases, which increases consumer spending. On the other hand, an increase in transfer payments to firms (subsidies) increases the possibilities of internal financing of firms and the possibility of expanding production, which leads to an increase in investment costs. A reduction in transfers reduces aggregate demand.

Tax increases work in the opposite direction. An increase in taxes leads to a decrease in both consumer spending (since disposable income is reduced) and investment spending (since retained earnings, which are the source of income, are reduced) net investment) and, consequently, to a reduction in aggregate demand. Accordingly, tax cuts increase aggregate demand. Tax cuts lead to a shift of the AD curve to the right, which causes an increase in real GNP.

Therefore, fiscal policy instruments can be used to stabilize the economy at different phases of the economic cycle.

Moreover, from the simple Keynesian model (the “Keynesian cross” model) it follows that all instruments of fiscal policy (government purchases, taxes and transfers) have a multiplier effect on the economy, therefore, according to Keynes and his followers, regulation of the economy should be carried out by the government with using the tools of fiscal policy, and above all by changing the amount of government purchases, since they have the greatest multiplier effect.

According to the classical concept, fiscal policy instruments only lead to the redistribution of funds from the private sector to the public sector and do not affect the values ​​of income tax and employment in the economy. The increase in aggregate demand caused by the increase in autonomous demand in the goods market is largely offset by interaction with money market. This mechanism is called the displacement effect. An increase in government purchases will lead to an increase in the interest rate, which will cause a decrease in investments planned by entrepreneurs in an amount equal to the initial increase in government purchases. There will be a price increase.

The effectiveness of fiscal policy in practice may be reduced as a result of its possible temporary lag in relation to the needs of the current economic situation, its use for political purposes, as well as as a result of unforeseen international shocks to aggregate demand and the net export effect if the economy is open. Therefore for the right choice

of one or another type of fiscal policy, it is necessary to study the mechanisms of its functioning, the possible impact on the economy, as well as knowledge of the economic situation.

2. Fiscal policy instruments Fiscal policy in the state is carried out using its own instruments. Instruments of state fiscal policy are economic mechanisms

, with the help of which the goals set for fiscal policy are achieved. The set of fiscal policy instruments includes government subsidies , manipulation of various types of taxes (personal income tax, corporate tax, excise taxes) by changing or lump sum taxes. In addition, fiscal policy instruments include transfer payments and other types of government spending. Different instruments have different effects on the economy. For example, an increase in the lump sum tax leads to a decrease in total spending but does not lead to a change in the multiplier, while an increase in personal income tax rates will cause a decrease in both total spending and the multiplier. The choice of different types of taxes - personal income tax, corporate tax or excise tax - as an instrument of influence has different effects on the economy, including incentives that influence the economic growth and economic efficiency. The choice of a particular type of government spending is also important, since in each case the multiplier effect may be different. For example, among specialists in the field economic policy There is an opinion that defense spending provides a lower multiplier compared to other types of government spending.

Depending on the phase of the cycle in which the economy is located and the type of fiscal policy corresponding to it, the government’s fiscal policy instruments are used differently. Thus, the instruments of stimulating fiscal policy are:

Increase in government procurement;

Tax reduction;

Increase in transfers.

The instruments of contractionary fiscal policy are:

Reduction in government procurement;

Increase in taxes;

Reducing transfers.

A slightly different list of fiscal policy instruments is presented in the textbook “Economics” by academician G.P. Zhuravleva. According to this body of literature, the instruments of discretionary fiscal policy are public Works, changing transfer payments, manipulating tax rates.

The author of this textbook includes changes in tax revenues, unemployment benefits and other social payments, and subsidies to farmers as instruments of automatic fiscal policy.

Analyzing the literature sources, we can come to the conclusion that the main instruments of fiscal policy are changes in taxes and transfer payments.

One of the main instruments of fiscal policy is taxes, which are funds forcibly withdrawn by the state or local authorities from individuals and legal entities necessary for the state to carry out its functions. .

Taxes perform three main functions:

– fiscal, consisting in collecting Money to create state monetary funds and material conditions for the functioning of the state;

– economic, which involves the use of taxes as a tool of redistribution national income, influencing the expansion or containment of production, stimulating producers to develop a variety of types economic activity;

– social, aimed at maintaining social balance by changing the ratio between the incomes of individual social groups in order to smooth out inequality between them.

IN modern economy exist different kinds taxes.

Direct taxes are taxes on the income or property of taxpayers. In turn, direct taxes are divided into

- real, which became most widespread in the first half of the 19th century, and which include land, house, trade, tax on securities;

– personal, including income taxes, taxes on corporate profits, capital gains, and excess profits.

Indirect taxes consist of excise taxes, value added taxes, sales taxes, turnover taxes, customs duties.

Depending on the authority at whose disposal certain taxes are received, a distinction is made between state and local taxes. In Russian conditions, these are federal, federal, and local taxes.

Depending on the use, taxes are divided into:

– general, intended to finance current and capital expenditures of the budget, without being assigned to any specific type of expenditure;

– special taxes that have special purpose

Depending on the nature of the rates, taxes are distinguished:

– firm (fixed), established in an absolute amount per unit of taxation, regardless of various economic indicators related to business activity;

– regressive, in which the percentage of income withdrawal decreases as income increases;

– proportional, manifested in the fact that regardless of the amount of income, the same rates apply;

– progressive, in which the percentage of withdrawal increases as income increases.

A group of American specialists led by A. Laffer studied the dependence of the amount of tax revenues to the budget on income tax rates. This dependence is reflected by the Laffer curve presented in Figure 1.

Rice. 1 Laffer curve

Tax rates are set as a percentage that determines the share of income withdrawn. Up to a certain increase in the tax rate, income increases, but then begins to decline. As the tax rate increases, the desire of enterprises to maintain high production volumes will begin to decrease, the income of enterprises will decrease, and with them tax revenues enterprises. Consequently, there is a value of the tax rate at which tax revenues in the state budget reached its maximum value. It is advisable for the state to set the tax rate at this value. Laffer's group has theoretically proven that a tax rate of 50% is optimal. With this rate it is achieved maximum amount taxes. With more high rate tax is sharply reduced business activity firms and workers, and then income flows into shadow economy.

However, in many countries tax rates are significantly higher than the optimal level, and this is explained by other factors not taken into account in the theoretical model. For example, in countries that tend to have a strong government regulation, the desire to increase the budget through revenue part. Tax rates in such countries are high. Conversely, if a country gravitates towards a liberal market system, towards minimal government intervention in the economy, tax rates will be lower. In addition, the desire to have a socially oriented economy and to direct a significant part of budget allocations to social assistance does not allow tax rates to be significantly reduced - in order to avoid shortages budget funds for social needs. High tax rates in Russian economy primarily due to budget deficit, shortage public funds for the implementation of socio-economic programs and a faint hope that lowering tax rates will lead to increased production and economic recovery. In order to somehow soften the tax pressure for individual taxpayers, tax benefits- a form of reduction in tax rates or, in extreme cases, tax exemption. Sometimes tax breaks are used as an incentive, based on the fact that a tax reduction is adequate to provide the taxpayer with additional funds equal to the amount of the reduction. The problem of choosing and assigning rational tax rates faces any state.

Obviously, the higher the taxes, the less income the subject will have, which means less to buy and save. Therefore, a reasonable tax policy requires comprehensive consideration of those factors that can stimulate or inhibit economic development and the welfare of society.

Such an instrument of state fiscal policy as taxes is closely related to another instrument of fiscal policy - government spending. Funds withdrawn in the form of taxes go to the state budget, subsequently spent on various state purposes. Under the current legislation of the Russian Federation, the main part of the budget is filled through payments from taxpayers - legal entities.