For several years, the conditionality underpinning budgetary support to developing countries has been the object of severe criticism. This criticism has led to the belief that the “ownership of policies” by the recipient country governments is essential for the effective implementation of...

The Stability and Growth Pact has become a primary fiscal policy framework in all European countries since 1997. Together with Maastricht fiscal criteria it determines the fiscal discipline of integration process. The aim of this study is to evaluate ex-post effectiveness of the fiscal rules...

This paper looks at the Quebec's tax system including taxes and tarification with the perspective of the determination of fiscal policies in the political market. To allow a global reflection on the Quebec's fiscal policy, it begins with the presentation of general principles used to evaluate a...

The Czech Republic is going to face ageing of its population. It will affect the economy in many ways. The pension system is one of them. This paper provides a view on possibilities how to insure long-term stability of the pension system in the Czech Republic using a mix of pay-as-you-go and...

Government balances are often adjusted for changes in economic activity in order to draw a clearer picture of the underlying fiscal situation and to use this as a guide to fiscal policy analysis. International organisations estimate the cyclical component of economic activity by the current...

Since 1995, fiscal law requires that un-married couples declare each of their children on only one of their two separate fiscal declarations. Thereby, their choice can be the result of an optimization, since the reduction each child implies depends on the family income. Fiscal simulation models...

Longtemps négligées et jamais vraiment traitées, les questions budgétaires figurent parmi les dossiers les plus sensibles de la construction européenne. La situation budgétaire actuelle apparaît assez atypique ce qui soulève de nombreuses questions et incertitudes pour l'avenir....

This eleventh issue of the International Productivity Monitor, published by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, contains seven articles on a range of topics: policies to improve productivity growth in Canada; the causes of lower information and communications technology investment in...

According to the conventional wisdom, we face a trade-off between our equity and efficiency objectives. The author challenges this proposition. He shows in a rigorous manner that employment subsidies can indeed lead to lower unemployment and higher productivity growth in a standard economic...