Confidence, Credibility and Macroeconomic Policy

Richard Burdekin is Associate Professor of Economics at Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate School. Farrokh Langdana is Associate Professor of Economics and Finance at Rutgers School of Management.

The authors explore the interaction between confidence and the credibility of the government's financial policies. It will be an invaluable guide for all those interested in macroeconomic policy.

Part I Credibility in practice and in experimental Testing 1 Fiscal policy, credibility and inflation: The critical role of confidence factors 2 Bond-financed deficits, taxation and expectations: An experimental test of the Ricardian equivalence theorem 3 Monetary credibility and national output: An experimental verification of the Lucas 'islands' explanation of business cycles Part II Confidence and credibility factors in historical Perspective 4 Public confidence and public finance during the American Civil War: Lessons from North and South 5 Deficit finance, expectations and real money balances: The operation of the inflation tax in Germany after the First World War 6 Does exchange rate pegging foster monetary credibility? Part III Consumer confidence and macroeconomic stabilisation in the 1990s 7 Consumer confidence in today's macroeconomy: Definition, measurement and potential importance 8 Consumer confidence and the optimal timing of effective monetary stabilisation 9 Consumer confidence and domestic fiscal stabilisation (with Giles Mellon)