The euro is widely believed to be a currency without a sovereign state. To make the euro a stable currency, many commentators recommend a move to a federal fiscal Europe by issuing eurobonds or levying European taxes. By contrast, we argue in this paper that the EU and the euro area member...

This study analyses the impact of economic catching-up on annual inflation rates in the European Union with a special focus on the new member countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Using an array of estimation methods, we show that the Balassa-Samuelson effect is not an important driver of...

While the ECB helped mitigate the euro crisis in the aftermath of Lehman, it has stretched its monetary mandate and moved into fiscal territory. This text describes and summarises the crucial role played by the ECB in the intervention spiral resulting from its bid to manage the crisis. It also...

The extent of government deficits and debt has been one of the most debated issues in recent years. However, much less has been contributed about their dynamics. Yet, the issue of entering into and exiting from excessive deficits is critical in the Economic and Monetary Union since the Stability...

The paper analyses theoretically what role fiscal councils could play and surveys empirically the activities of existing councils. Case studies of the Swedish Fiscal Policy Council and the UK Office for Budget Responsibility are done. It is concluded that fiscal councils should be advisory,...

The paper analyses theoretically what role fiscal councils could play and surveys empirically the activities of existing councils. Case studies of the Swedish Fiscal Policy Council and the UK Office for Budget Responsibility are done. It is concluded that fiscal councils should be advisory,...

In this paper we analyze the dynamics of public investment and public finance in new members of the European Union, and also how these sectors were affected by changes in economic freedom and corruption. When we assess the role of regulation and corruption on public investment, we find that...

Measures targeted at the revenue side of the budget can contribute between €10 and €28 billion to the consolidation of public finances in Austria. This total amount could be reached without harming the economy via an increase of excise taxes, an enhanced taxation of wealth and the abolition...

While the financial crisis of 2008 has shown the insufficient predicting power of the indicators of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), the search for other macroeconomic indicators is worthwhile. The paper tries to underline that - among the indicators discussed in the literature and...

This paper re-examines the stock-flow discrepancies of government debt and deficits and correlation with fiscal transparency. Applying the fully integrated relationship between financial stocks and flows allows for a more refined analysis of the deterministic components that make up the...