# Policies to reduce federal budget deficits by increasing economic growth Source: https://www.nber.org/books-and-chapters/entrepreneurship-and-innovation-policy-and-economy-volume-5/policies-reduce-federal-budget-deficits-increasing-economic-growth Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Policies-to-reduce-federal-budget-deficits-by-increasing-economic-growth?index=0x6835d3764bc74c4b2f69e54daf88889b0515b39ae60057b4221c971fb40e59da9f112acf Submitted by tim on 2025-05-27 UTC, 5 upvotes, 0 comments ## Summary 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. ## Article Home Research Books & Chapters Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy, volume 5 Policies to Reduce Federal Budget… Published Date March 2026 Copyright 2026 ISBN 9780226856049 Series: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy Could policy changes boost economic growth enough and at a low enough cost to meaningfully reduce federal budget deficits? We assess seven areas of economic policy: immigration of high-skilled workers, housing regulation, safety net programs, regulation of electricity transmission, government support for research and development, tax policy related to business investment, and permitting of infrastructure construction. We find that growth-enhancing policies almost certainly cannot stabilize federal debt on their own, but that such policies can reduce the explicit tax hikes, spending cuts, or both that are needed to stabilize debt. We also find a dearth of research on the likely impacts of potential growth-enhancing policies and on ways to design such policies to restrain federal debt, and we offer suggestions for ways to build a larger base of evidence. Copy Citation Douglas Elmendorf, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Zachary Liscow, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy, volume 5 (University of Chicago Press, 2025), chap. 2, https://www.nber.org/books-and-chapters/entrepreneurship-and-innovation-policy-and-economy-volume-5/policies-reduce-federal-budget-deficits-increasing-economic-growth. Download Citation Published From Paper May 2025 - Working Paper Could policy changes boost economic growth enough and at a low enough cost to meaningfully reduce federal budget... More from the NBER Feldstein Lecture Presenter: Mark Duggan Mark Duggan, who is currently the Wayne and Jodi Cooperman Professor of Economics at Stanford University and will soon... Methods Lectures Presenters: Melissa Dell & Ashesh Rambachan Research Associate Melissa Dell of Harvard University and Ashesh Rambachan of MIT delivered the 2026 Methods...