TY  - JOUR
AU  - Christiano, Lawrence
AU  - Eichenbaum, Martin
AU  - Rebelo, Sergio
TI  - When is the government spending multiplier large?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15394
PY  - 2009
Y2  - October 2009
DO  - 10.3386/w15394
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15394
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15394.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Lawrence Christiano
Department of Economics
Northwestern University
2001 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
Tel: 847/491-8231
Fax: 847/491-7001
E-Mail: l-christiano@northwestern.edu

Martin S. Eichenbaum
Department of Economics
Northwestern University
2003 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL  60208
Tel: 847/491-8232
Fax: 847/491-7001
E-Mail: eich@northwestern.edu

Sergio Rebelo
Northwestern University
Kellogg School of Management
Department of Finance
Leverone Hall
Evanston, IL  60208-2001
Tel: 847/467-2329
Fax: 847/491-5719
E-Mail: s-rebelo@northwestern.edu
AB  - We argue that the government-spending multiplier can be much larger than one when the zero lower bound on the nominal interest rate binds. The larger is the fraction of government spending that occurs while the nominal interest rate is zero, the larger is the value of the multiplier. After providing intuition for these results, we investigate the size of the multiplier in a dynamic, stochastic, general equilibrium model. In this model the multiplier effect is substantially larger than one when the zero bound binds. Our model is consistent with the behavior of key macro aggregates during the recent financial crisis.
ER  -