ABSTRACT
Fiscal policy-interpreted broadly to encompass tax, expenditure and debt policy-has multiple objectives, including micro as well as macro concerns. How do its micro goals, such as the provision of public goods and adjustments in the state of distribution, interact with its role in macro policy, bearing on employment, inflation and growth? More basically, is the distinction between micro and macro issues a valid one? According to textbook practice, micro economics addresses the behavior of individual agents, relative prices and the allocation of resources, while macro addresses the behavior of economic aggregates. But with aggregates the outcomes of micro behavior, does macro analysis offer more than an exercise in aggregation? It does so, and for various reasons.
