Between November 2009 and December 2012, no fewer than 16 presidential elections will be held in the region. The series will begin with Chile in December of this year, and will end with elections in Mexico and Venezuela between August and December 2012. This column explores the changing dynamics...

In this paper we test the impact of elections on fiscal policy in Latin American economies in comparison to OECD countries over the period 1990-2006. We find that in Latin American countries, the average primary balance declines by an amount close to 0.7 per cent of GDP during an election year,...