Is Fiscal Policy Possible? Is It Desirable?

Forty years ago, at about the time of the International Economic Association’s first World Congress, no one would have bothered to ask the questions that make up the title of this chapter. Jan Tinbergen had made us aware that a society needs as many independent policy instruments as it has independent policy goals it would like to achieve. In the macroeconomic policy field, there were obviously multiple goals, and therefore a need for several instruments. The separate and joint roles of fiscal and monetary policy were a common topic of discussion.