Automatic Stabilisers  

Definition Automatic stabilisers: Automatic stabilisers refer to how fiscal instruments will influence the rate of growth and help counter swings in the economic cycle.

Example of Automatic stabilizers

• High Growth - In a period of high economic growth, automatic stabilizers will help to reduce the growth rate. With higher growth, the government will receive more tax revenues - people earn more and so pay more income tax (note the tax rate doesn't change, the % just becomes higher). With higher growth, there will also be a fall in unemployment so the government will spend less on unemployment benefits.
• Recession. In a recession, the economic growth becomes negative. However, automatic stabilisers will help to limit the fall in growth. With lower incomes people pay less tax, and government spending on unemployment benefits will increase.

Graph of Automatic Stabilisers

It is hard to make a graph for automatic stabilisers. Basically, if automatic stabilisers are working the fluctuations in the growth cycle will be lessened. However, it is difficult to isolate the impact of automatic stabilisers on the growth rates.

Related Essays and Revision Notes

• Fiscal Policy
• Trade Cycle
• Interest Rate Cycle

 

• Economics Dictionary at Amazon.co.uk
• Economics Dictionaryat Amazon.com