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...

This paper starts off explaining the arguments put forward to defend the need to reduce the State’s budgetary activity and minimize fiscal deficit in accordance with the institutionalized consensus reached under the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact. Secondly, it sheds light...

This paper explores the political economy of fiscal adjustment. It begins with an examination of the evidence for, and sources of, ‘deficit bias’, including political and governance factors, public attitudes, the role of financial markets and imprecision about which debt targets should be...

The share of public investment relative to consumption expenditure has declined in past decades. Earlier literature has attributed this stylised fact variably to the relative political ease of cutting investment; different cyclical patterns of public investment and consumption; or to EMU’s...

Under current law, the deficit will decrease to $492 billion in 2014, CBO projects, as revenues continue rebounding from their low in the recession. But beginning in 2016, deficits will rise again—largely because of an aging population, rising health care costs, an expansion of federal...

The President's proposals would, relative to CBO's current-law baseline, boost deficits from 2014 through 2016 but reduce them from 2017 through 2024, CBO and JCT estimate. Deficits would total $6.6 trillion between 2015 and 2024, $1.0 trillion less than the cumulative deficit in CBO's baseline....

Under the President’s proposed budget for 2016, CBO estimates, the federal budget deficit would decline from $486 billion in 2015 to $384 billion in 2016, but then climb in subsequent years, reaching $801 billion in 2025. Federal debt held by the public would remain in the vicinity of 72...

Under current law, CBO estimates the deficit will total $486 billion in 2015, about the same as in 2014. However, because the nation’s output has increased, the projected deficit for 2015 represents a slightly lower percentage of GDP—2.7 percent. If current laws generally remain unchanged,...