What role can better quality of public finances play in supporting Europe's long-term economic growth prospects? This question was at the centre of the 2008 European Commission workshop on public finances. It was largely motivated by the pressures put on European economies and their budgets from...

Improving the quality of public finances (QPF) has become a new focus for European policy makers. This focus is largely a response to preparing the European economies for the dual challenge of ageing populations and increased exposure to global competition. Better QPF can help tackle both...

Fiscal indicators are the backbone of effective fiscal policy-making, including the coordination and surveillance of budgetary policy at the EU level. The quality and success of the EU surveillance framework, in particular the timeliness and appropriateness of any policy recommendation or...

We use a policy rule framework and focus on the response of the primary surplus to accumulated public debt to test a sufficient condition for sustainability. The evidence we report suggests that sustainability was prevalent in many EU countries before Maastricht, but also that the Maastricht...

This paper analyzes the impact of a balanced budget rule (BBR) on government financing costs. We construct measures of BBR at the US state government level, and find that states with tighter BBRs are associated with significantly lower state government bond spreads. Furthermore, the credit...

Budgetary institutions have historically played a critical role in a gradual movement toward responsive, responsible, and accountable public governance in industrial countries. This paper includes the following headings: overview; a primer on budgeting and budgetary institutions; the budget and...

Table of Contents -- Preface -- List of Abbreviations -- 1. Introduction and Overview -- Part I: From Economic Stabilization to Budget Stabilization: Theory and Tools -- 2. From Economic Stabilization to Budget Stabilization -- 3. Subnational Government Tools for Budget Stabilization -- Part II:...

In Western democracies, systems of checks and balances built into government structures have formed the core of good governance, and have helped empower citizens for more than two hundred years. Many developing countries, however, continue to suffer from unsatisfactory and often dysfunctional...