Fiscal policy analysis in the euro area: Expanding the toolkit

The absence of historical quarterly fiscal data has limited the analysis of the macroeconomic impact of fiscal policies in the euro area, including the interactions of fiscal and monetary policies. To overcome this gap, we construct a quite disaggregated euro area quarterly fiscal database for the period 1980Q1–2012Q4, based on a rich set of input fiscal data taken from national sources. We discuss how this dataset has allowed and can allow the profession to tackle new policy-relevant research topics. We also provide stylized facts on the cyclical properties of main euro area fiscal aggregates, focusing on the recent economic crisis period.