Policies to reduce federal budget deficits by increasing economic growth

Douglas Elmendorf, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Zachary Liscow conclude that growth-enhancing policies almost certainly cannot stabilize federal debt on their own, though they can reduce the tax increases or spending cuts needed to do so. The chapter assesses seven policy areas: high-skilled immigration, housing regulation, safety net programs, electricity transmission regulation, government support for research and development, business investment tax policy, and infrastructure permitting. It also finds a dearth of research on the likely impacts of these policies and on designing them to restrain federal debt.