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In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government revenue collection (mainly taxes) and expenditure (spending) to influence the economy.〔(Concise Encyclopedia of Economics: Fiscal Policy )〕 According to Keynesian economics, when the government changes the levels of taxation and governments spending, it influences aggregate demand and the level of economic activity. Fiscal policy can be used to stabilize the economy over the course of the business cycle. The two main instruments of fiscal policy are changes in the level and composition of taxation and government spending in various sectors. These changes can affect the following macroeconomic variables, amongst others, in an economy: * Aggregate demand and the level of economic activity; * Savings and Investment in the economy * The distribution of income Fiscal policy can be distinguished from monetary policy, in that fiscal policy deals with taxation and government spending and is often administered by an executive under laws of a legislature, whereas monetary policy deals with the money supply, lending rates and interest rates and is often administered by a central bank. ==Stances== The five main stances of fiscal policy are: * Neutral fiscal policy is usually undertaken when an economy is in equilibrium. Government spending is fully funded by tax revenue and overall the budget outcome has a neutral effect on the level of economic activity. * Expansionary fiscal policy involves government spending exceeding tax revenue, and is usually undertaken during recessions. It is also known as reflationary fiscal policy. * Contractionary fiscal policy occurs when government spending is lower than tax revenue, and is usually undertaken to pay down government debt. However, these definitions can be misleading because, even with no changes in spending or tax laws at all, cyclic fluctuations of the economy cause cyclic fluctuations of tax revenues and of some types of government spending, altering the deficit situation; these are not considered to be policy changes. Therefore, for purposes of the above definitions, "government spending" and "tax revenue" are normally replaced by "cyclically adjusted government spending" and "cyclically adjusted tax revenue". Thus, for example, a government budget that is balanced over the course of the business cycle is considered to represent a neutral fiscal policy stance. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fiscal policy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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