The UK government is part-way through significant cuts in spending on public services as it attempts to deal with the large hole in the UK's public finances. As part of this, grants from the UK Treasury to the Welsh Government have been reduced in real terms each year since 2009-10, and the...

The paper analyses theoretically what role fiscal councils could play and surveys empirically the activities of existing councils. Case studies of the Swedish Fiscal Policy Council and the UK Office for Budget Responsibility are done. It is concluded that fiscal councils should be advisory,...

This paper presents a review of the most significant fiscal rules policymakers can choose from. The insights from this review are then applied to the current budgetary situation of the European Union. In the European Union, the supranational Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) should provide the...

We use a 3-step analysis to assess the sustainability of public finances in the EU27. Firstly, we perform the SURADF specific panel unit root test to investigate the mean-reverting behaviour of general government expenditures and revenues ratios. Secondly, we apply the bootstrap panel...

We examine whether US and German state governments pursue sustainable fiscal policies taking into account fiscal transfers. Using panel data techniques we investigate whether the debt-to-GDP ratio had a positive influence on the primary surplus (Bohn-model). We show that including/excluding...

This study assesses fiscal sustainability in contemporary Spain at the regional level. Spain consists of 17 autonomous regions, two fiscal regimes differing in taxing autonomy, and two path-dependent types of communities with more and less legislatively recognized autonomy. Three of the 17...

The current generation of pensioners has, in general, been better served by the UK's mix of state and private pension provision than earlier generations were. Pensioners today have disposable incomes - once you take account of housing costs and children - that on average are similar to those...

The challenging fiscal situation facing the next government means that both Labour and the Conservatives are looking for ways to improve public services without large increases in spending. Improving the productivity of public services is often proposed as a way to achieve this. This follows the...