In 2001 the Hungarian economy departed from the path of balanced growth. During the past six years the state budget deficit has grown to an unsustainable level, and also the deficit in the current accounts has become too high. Real wages have increased considerably faster than labour...

Not much cross-country evidence exists on the time-series behavior of individual fiscal instruments in response to the public debt and to output. To remedy this situation, this study provides a set of detailed estimated fiscal reaction functions (or “fiscal rules”) governing these responses...

Using the IMF’s “action-based” dataset, we show that budgetary consolidation under both the euro and other exchange rate regimes negatively affects GDP growth, while it raises unemployment. However, these effects are more pronounced under the euro.

This article examines the scope and size of adjustments made by statisticians on source data from public accounting systems in EU member states to reach harmonised statistical measures. The article focuses on EDP Table 2 which shows the reconciliation from cash/cash modified or accrual public...

This paper investigates nonlinearities in a quantity-based monetary policy rule for China within a New Keynesian DSGE model. Empirical results from Bayesian estimation show that the central bank of China has adopted a nonlinear quantity rule over the period of 1992Q1–2013Q3. Moreover, evidence...

Of all the institutional arrangements for monetary union in Europe, the fiscal convergence criteria have proved the most difficult to achieve and the most controversial because of their presumed deflationary impact on economies already suffering high unemployment. This paper examines what fiscal...

We analyse the arguments in favour and against binding fiscal rules such as those recently agreed by European countries as preconditions for participation in the third phase of the European Monetary Union. The evidence in the paper suggests that a number of EC countries are following...

This 2003 Institute for Fiscal Studies Lecture addresses two sets of issues relevant to current and prospective future E(M)U members: the consequences of the Stability and Growth Pact for fiscal-financial sustainability and macroeconomic stability, and some risks associated with operational...

The paper considers the implications for the EU accession candidates of Central and Eastern Europe of the fiscal-financial constraints imposed by the Stability and Growth Pact and the Maastricht Treaty. Our findings apply also to those current EU members whose initial conditions (e.g....

The Paper is one of the first attempts to compute cyclical and structural deficits for a set of countries candidate to accession to the EU. Three main results are derived: first, the high deficits observed in candidate countries in recent years have a structural nature. Second, the fiscal stance...