In this paper we construct Financial Conditions Indices (FCIs) for the euro area, for the period 2003 to 2011, using a wide range of prices, quantities, spreads and survey data, grounded in the theoretical literature. One FCI includes monetary policy variables, while two versions of the FCI...

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...

The recent financial crisis was characterized by the sizeable fiscal cost of banking sector bail out operations and the significant automatic and discretionary fiscal policy response to shrinking output, which have put increased pressure on public finances in many industrialized countries. This...

This paper provides a quantitative evaluation of the intra--cohort redistributive elements of the United States social security system in the context of a computable general equilibrium model. I determine how the well--being of individuals that differ across {\sl gender, race} and {\sl...

Although federal deficits have shrunk markedly in recent years, growing spending for Social Security and major health care programs, along with increasing interest costs, would cause them to rise steadily over the long term. The larger deficits would cause federal debt to grow faster than the...

The paper surveys and extends recent results on the effect of changes in government fiscal and financial policy, and in private savings behaviour, on economic growth. Private saving behaviour is represented by an overlapping generations (OLG) model. The supply side of the model permits...

For many years now, fiscal policy, based on certain rules, has become an alternative for the discretionary activities implemented by public authorities. Changes made in public finance are supplemented through the introduction of fiscal rules, the strengthening of their role and the creation of...

Do general fund balanced budget requirements ilmit deficit financing? If so, which balanced budget rules are most effective in constraining state deficit financing? Finally, how are state spending and taxation decisions affected by balanced budget rules?

Understanding debt and its historical trends is important, as the level of debt provides one measure of the strength of public finances. Levels of public sector borrowing fluctuate in line with the economic cycle and the budget position. This paper briefly describes the various measures of debt...

In this paper Tabellini’s and Alesina’s (1990) median voter model for the explanation of budget deficits is modified by endogenizing the private sector. Debt finance is supplemented by taxing a private consumption which serves as an additional source of revenue for funding the public sector....