Composição Ótima da Dívida Pública Brasileira e a Política Monetária^*

Abstract

The public debt management has recently occupied a prominent position in the academic debate due to the fiscal imbalance currently faced by Brazil. The objective of this paper is to analyze the effects of the public debt composition on the dynamics of the Brazilian economy and its interaction with the monetary policy. The model of Schmitt-Grohé e Uribe (2007) is expanded to include public bonds indexed to interest rate, in addition to the pre-fixed and indexed to the inflation. The dynamics of the economy is simulated from exogenous shocks in fiscal policy, productivity, and monetary policy. A welfare analysis investigates the optimal composition of public debt and its relationship with the monetary policy. The results indicate that the fiscal shock might be inflationary because of its effects on aggregate demand and investment; debt composition has little impact on the dynamics of real variables in face of a productivity shock; and, the monetary policy shock increases the public debt and consequently the level of taxation required for fiscal equilibrium. A greater degree of public debt indexation increases the welfare because this contributes to smoothing the trajectories of public debt and taxation in the economy. The welfare also increases when the Central Bank does not respond to the output gap and aggressively fights inflation in its reaction function.