This paper reviews the arguments for and against the ‘Stability and Growth Pact’ signed by the countries of the Euro area. We find the theoretical debate to be inconclusive, as both externality and credibility arguments can be used to yield opposite, and equally plausible conclusions. We...

Since the outbreak of the European debt crisis, fiscal sustainability as a research area became more and more popular. This paper aims to assess the predicting power of the basic types of the following five fiscal sustainability indicators: primary gap (1), stationary tests for public debt (2),...

The EMU fiscal system is specific in many areas compared to other classic fiscal systems of national states. Specific features mainly reflect in the implementation of economic policy within the EMU which is carried out by combining a common centralized monetary policy under the ECB jurisdiction...

This paper studies how the effects of government spending vary with the economic environment. Using a panel of OECD countries, we identify fiscal shocks as residuals from an estimated spending rule and trace their macroeconomic impact under different conditions regarding the exchange rate...

The public finances crisis has brought binding fiscal rules proposals back to the forefront. The paper analyses their justifications and specifications, either in a classical or in a Keynesian framework. There is no evidence that public deficits were caused by fiscal indiscipline in recent years...

The public finances crisis has brought binding fiscal rules proposals back to the forefront. The paper analyses their justifications and specifications, either in a classical or in a Keynesian framework. In the recent period there is no evidence that public deficits were caused by fiscal...

Before the crisis hit, many euro area countries had failed to create sufficient fiscal room for times of economic difficulty, which made a new reform of the Stability and Growth Pact inevitable. Above all, this most recent reform introduces an expenditure rule in the preventive arm of the pact,...

This work provides empirical evidence for a sizeable, statistically significant negative impact of the quality of fiscal institutions on public spending volatility for a panel of 23 EU countries over the 1980–2007 period. The dependent variable is the volatility of discretionary fiscal policy,...

New Zealand’s fiscal policy framework has been in place for nearly 20 years. At its core is a set of principles around maintaining prudent levels of public debt and running fiscal surpluses on average over time. This framework, combined with an extended period of economic growth, contributed...

This paper summarizes recent international evidence on the design, functioning and effects of fiscal rules. Special attention is paid to small open economies such as the Czech Republic. This paper (1) discusses pros and cons of the rules focusing on different types of fiscal constraints (e.g.,...