Stances of Fiscal Policy
The three main stances of fiscal policy are:
- Neutral fiscal policy is usually undertaken when an economy is in equilibrium. Government spending is fully funded by tax revenue and overall the budget outcome has a neutral effect on the level of economic activity.
- Expansionary fiscal policy involves government spending exceeding tax revenue, and is usually undertaken during recessions.
- Contractionary fiscal policy occurs when government spending is lower than tax revenue, and is usually undertaken to pay down government debt.
However, these definitions can be misleading because, even with no changes in spending or tax laws at all, cyclic fluctuations of the economy cause cyclic fluctuations of tax revenues and of some types of government spending, altering the deficit situation; these are not considered to be policy changes. Therefore, for purposes of the above definitions, "government spending" and "tax revenue" are normally replaced by "cyclically adjusted government spending" and "cyclically adjusted tax revenue". Thus, for example, a government budget that is balanced over the course of the business cycle is considered to represent a neutral fiscal policy stance.
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—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)