Ireland’s banking crisis, one of the most severe in the OECD area, and the associated economic recession have taken a heavy toll on public finances. Large public deficits have accumulated since 2008 and net public debt, which had been eliminated, has soared once again. The rapid deterioration...

In response to the recession, many European Countries, Italy included, are undertaking large spending cuts and tax hikes. This paper investigates whether the changes in the composition of public spending would hurt the long-run economic growth. If the composition of spending is strongly tilted...

Hungary has faced a considerable challenge to regain credibility following persistent and high fiscal deficits. Efforts during recent years have produced substantial results. The fiscal deficit has been brought down significantly and, despite the recession, fiscal consolidation has continued to...

Does it matter for the success of fiscal consolidation programmes that they are fair? This question has never been empirically addressed despite its profound importance especially since many developed countries have embarked on fiscal consolidation programmes, which in many cases have led to...

Using an estimated DSGE model for Hungary, the paper identifies the possible non-Keynesian channels through which a fiscal consolidation may manifest as expansionary. Simulations show that fiscal consolidation policies are typically contractionary. Nevertheless, taking into account some specific...

Despite a deep recession in 2009 and weak growth in subsequent years, Hungary’s fiscal position compares favourably with many other OECD countries. Nonetheless, the underlying fiscal balance started deteriorating in 2010 and 2011. Recognising this, Hungary’s government launched an ambitious...

During the economic and financial crisis, fiscal positions across the OECD countries deteriorated sharply. This raises the question of what level of primary deficit would ensure long-term sustainability and what degree of consolidation is needed. The purpose of this paper is to gauge the scale...

This paper examines fiscal policy issues in the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea) after the 2009 global financial crisis, including the timing of fiscal policy responses, the effectiveness of expansionary measures, and the long-term implications for government debt. In order to evaluate more...

The economic and financial crisis of 2007/2009 has posed unexpected challenges on both the global and the regional level. Besides the US, the EU has been the most severely hit by the current economic crisis. The financial and banking crisis on the one hand and the sovereign debt crisis on the...

The Slovak economy is experiencing another significant phase of fiscal consolidation in its history. Unlike previous episodes of major consolidation in our history, our economy cannot "rely" on a soft cushion in the form of favourable global economic situation, integration and launch of new...