On the General Relativity of Fiscal Language

Jerry Green and Laurence Kotlikoff

No 12344, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: A century ago, everyone thought time and distance were well defined physical concepts. But neither proved absolute. Instead, measures/reports of time and distance were found to depend on one's reference point, specifically one's direction and speed of travel, making our apparent physical reality, in Einstein's words, "merely an illusion." Like time and distance, standard fiscal measures, including deficits, taxes, and transfer payments, depend on one's reference point/reporting procedure/language/labels. As such, they too represent numbers in search of concepts that provide the illusion of meaning where none exists. This paper, dedicated to our dear friend, David Bradford, provides a general proof that standard and routinely used fiscal measures, including the deficit, taxes, and transfer payments, are economically ill-defined. Instead these measures reflect the arbitrary labeling of underlying fiscal conditions. Analyses based on these and derivative measures, such as disposable income, private assets, and personal saving, represent exercises in linguistics, not economics.

JEL-codes: H3 H6 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-hpe and nep-pbe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published as Auerbach, Alan J. and Daniel Shaviro (eds.) Key Issues in Public Finance – A Conference in Memory of David Bradford. Harvard University Press, 2009.

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Working Paper: On the General Relativity of Fiscal Language (2006)
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