The Swiss debt brake is a fiscal rule at central government level which aims at stabilizing debt. However, business cycle fluctuations are also accounted for. This paper discusses criticism of the debt brake that it cannot feasibly simultaneously achieve either anti-cyclical or sustainable...

Countries increasingly rely on independent fiscal councils to constrain policymakers' discretion and curb the bias towards excessive deficits and pro-cyclical policies. Since fiscal councils are often recent and heterogeneous across countries, assessing their impact is challenging. Using the...

This paper explores the implications of fiscal rules and independent fiscal institutions (IFIs) on sovereign risk. We employ a dynamic panel model for a sample composed of 24 countries members of the European Union over the period 2007-2019 and document that fiscal rules contain sovereign...

This paper explores the implications of fiscal rules and independent fiscal institutions (IFIs) on sovereign risk. We document that fiscal rules contain sovereign default risk in 24 countries members of the European Union measured by the credit default swap (CDS) spreads. IFIs, through...