This paper provides evidence that most German states (Laender) have unsustainable public finances by exploiting a newly compiled database covering the years 1950‐2011. Although the Laender are closely intertwined we are the first to apply “second generation” panel techniques that control...

We assess the sustainability of public finances in OECD countries, over the period 1970-2010, using unit root and cointegration analysis, both country and panel based, controlling for endogenous breaks. Results notably show: lack of cointegration – absence of sustainability – between...

We assess the effect of fiscal rules on sovereign bond yields over the short and medium-term, for 34 advanced countries and 21 emerging market economies, over the period 1980-2016. Our results, based on impulse response functions, show that the dynamic impact of fiscal rules on bond yields is...