Business Cycles

The Keynesian approach to recessionary gaps is to increase government spending and lower taxes -- run a deficit -- in order to spur aggregate demand. In the Keynesian model, aggregate demand is affected by a number of different factors -- consumer consumption, business investment, government spending and net exports. During a recessionary gap, consumer spending and business investment are probably both down, which leaves the other two factors to prop up the economy. Government spending is an efficient way of directly putting money into the economy, thereby giving consumers more money to spend and businesses more money to invest (FRBSF, 2013). Knowing that the government is working hard to spur economic growth can also change the underlying psychology of the market.

Lowering taxes is another means by which government can spur growth under this scenario. Lowering taxes allows for more spending from both consumers and businesses, since both...
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