The failure of key EU Member States to respect the provisions of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) a few years after its inception triggered a heated debate on how to reform the framework of fiscal policy coordination in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This paper analyzes 101 reform...

type="main" xml:lang="en" <title type="main">SUMMARY</title> </section> <title type="main">Fiscal policy in the EU
ARE OFFICIAL OUTPUT FORECASTS BIASED?</title> <p> We point out that official forecasts of output dynamics are crucial to the assessment of cyclically adjusted budget balances, and provide evidence that in some euro-area countries biased forecasts...</p>

While current instruments of EU economic policy coordination helped stave off a full-scale depression, the post-2007 global financial and economic crisis has revealed a number of weaknesses in the Stability and Growth Pact, the EU framework for fiscal surveillance and fiscal policy coordination....

While current instruments of EU economic policy coordination helped stave off a full-scale depression, the post-2007 global financial and economic crisis has revealed a number of weaknesses in the Stability and Growth Pact, the EU framework for fiscal surveillance and fiscal policy coordination....

While current instruments of EU economic policy coordination helped stave off a full-scale depression, the post-2007 global financial and economic crisis has revealed a number of weaknesses in the Stability and Growth Pact, the EU framework for fiscal surveillance and fiscal policy coordination....

The model presented in the paper makes use of the portfolio theory as well as its econometric transposition for estimating the yield structure of different financial-asset investments. As the supply of financial assets is not assumed to be perfectly elastic the demand for alternative assets...

Restoring sustainable public finances in the aftermath of the Great Recession is a key challenge in most EU countries. In order to learn from history, our paper examines consolidation episodes in the EU since 1970. We shed light on the factors that favour the start of a consolidation episode and...

It is often argued that fiscal stabilisation in the euro area compares unfavourably with the USA, not least because of the perceived limitations of the stability and growth pact. This paper qualifies this perception. It examines a number of elements which are generally overlooked or not...