The objective of the paper is to point out the impact of public finances in the context of the Lisbon growth strategy. Official communications from the Commission and ECOFIN Council note that public finances can contribute to achieving the goal of higher growth and employment via three...

In Lisbon the European Council proclaimed a European growth strategy. It considers an average economic "growth rate of around 3 percent as a realistic prospect for the coming years" and assigns public finances an important role in the process of achieving this goal. This paper addresses the...

This paper uses a new data set on budgetary institutions in Europe to examine the impact of fiscal rules and budget procedures in EU countries on public finances. It briefly describes the main pattern of budgetary institutions and their determinants across the EU 15 member states. Empirical...