We analyse the role of fiscal policy both in the emergence and the unwinding of external imbalances. Furthermore, we probe whether there is a role for fiscal policy in the prevention of excessive external imbalances. Finally, we ask whether fiscal policy could in practice successfully fulfill...

We examine the cross-country dispersion in fiscal outcomes during 2007-2009. In principle, international differences in fiscal policy may be related to differences in optimal fiscal positions, funding constraints, political economy factors and fiscal control problems. We find that the decline in...

Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) is a relatively new approach to describe macroeconomic differences across countries, classifying them into coordinated market economies (CMEs) and liberal market economies (LMEs). VoC already had a significant impact on the field but has been criticised for its lack...