The euro crisis was typically presented as excessive fiscal deficits leading to the accumulation of unsustainable public debts. This diagnosis applied most notably in Greece and Italy, but also Portugal and Spain. Implicit in much of the analysis, and occasionally explicit, was the suggestion...

The pressures on fiscal consolidation have mounted dramatically in the wake of the Greek and then the 'contagion' crisis which followed it (across the so-called 'weakest links' Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland). It led to the setting-up of the 750 billion euro stabilisation package widely seen as...

The pressures on fiscal consolidation have mounted dramatically in the wake of the Greek and then the 'contagion' crisis which followed it (across the so-called 'weakest links' Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland). It led to the setting-up of the 750 billion euro stabilisation package widely seen as...

New Zealand, like many other countries, is experiencing a changing demographic profile from one dominated by young people during the 20th century to one where the population is more evenly distributed across age groups. This has implications for the economy and society, including the...

The European consolidation process has raised a few questions. The most frequent one has been how large are the costs of consolidation and has the Eurozone fiscal stance improved or achieved debt sustainability? Second, do these costs and sustainability depend on the composition (tax vs....

The paper attempts to assess to what extent the central bank or the government should respond to developments that can cause financial instability, such as housing or asset bubbles, overextended budgetary policies, or excessive public and household debt. To analyse this question we set up a...

This paper aims to analyze the achievement of nominal convergence criteria by the Romanian economy, as well as the macroeconomic effects caused by the strong targeting of these criteria. The global crisis caused a small contraction of governmental expenditure but a fast-growing public debt. The...

We consider an economy where competing political parties alternate in office. Due to rent-seeking motives, incumbents have an incentive to set public expenditures above the socially optimum level. Parties cannot commit to future policies, but they can forge a political compromise where each...

The world financial crisis, started by the collapse of the mortgage market in USA, gave rise to the deterioration of public finances in many European countries. The countries on which the impact was strong are Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain (or PIIGS). Already during 2010, Greece and...