Abstract
In this paper, we study the effect of search and matching frictions, i.e., equilibrium unemployment, on fiscal financing decisions in the United States. We build a Real Business Cycle model with labour market frictions and a rich set of fiscal tools and estimate the model using Bayesian methods on US data for various fiscal rule specifications. Most importantly, we find that the model with unemployment, output and debt in the fiscal rules fits the data best. Under the fiscal rule that best fits the data, the reaction of fiscal instruments to output and debt are significantly quantitatively different than a rule that ignores unemployment. Fiscal instruments react stronger to cyclical factors except transfers. These changes also affect model dynamics in response to fundamental non-fiscal shocks.