{"product_id":"9781513505312","title":"When Should Public Debt Be Reduced?","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat considerations should guide public debt policy going forward? Should debt be reduced to achieve normative anchors (such as 60 percent of GDP), should it be increased further to finance a big public investment push, or should the existing debt be serviced forever? We argue that, for countries with ample fiscal space (little risk of encountering a fiscal crisis), raising distortive taxes merely to bring the debt down is a treatment cure that is worse than the disease. High public debt of course is costly, but it is a sunk cost only made worse by efforts to pay down the debt through distortionary taxation. Living with the debt is the welfare-maximizing policy. In decisions vis-à-vis the big push for public investment, golden-rule considerations remain salient, with due account taken of the additional servicing costs (and associated distortive taxation) from the resulting buildup of public debt.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47173302943984,"sku":"9781513505312","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781513505312_p0.jpg?v=1763725027","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781513505312","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}