Notes on Optimal Debt Management

Abstract

Consider the finance of an exogenous path of public expenditure, G(t), with taxes and public debt issues. In the absence of unexpected default, borrowing does not allow the government to escape taxes in a present-value sense. But the choices of how much to borrow and in what form affect the timing of tax collections and the ways in which these collections are contingent on economic outcomes. This note assesses these choices from an optimal-tax perspective. That is, the government manages its debt to minimize the expected present value of the distortions from financing its expenditures.