The paper provides an explanation to the adoption of balanced-budget rules by politicians, instead of golden rules. In a model that includes voters' preferences that are skewed by the history of the budget structure, and fiscal rules on the budget, we show that incumbents favor a distorted...

The purpose of this note is to compare the characteristics of the actual Stability and Growth Pact with that of a European "modified golden rule." The latter would consist in achieving in each EU country a cyclically-adjusted net-of-public-investment balance. The benchmark for comparison is the...

The paper first reviews the evolution of federal fiscal rules in the United States, showing a trend towards balanced-budget rules, not golden rules. An explanation to this trend is provided in a model that includes voter's preferences that are skewed by the history of the budget structure, and...