Fiscal Rules - Limits on Governmental Deficits and Debt

Fiscal Rules - Limits on Governmental Deficits and Debt PDF Author: Fred L. Morrison
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319412051
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
This book examines legal limitations on government deficit and debt and its impact on the ability of nations to provide services to their residents. It studies constitutional and statutory limitations, as well as those imposed by international treaties and other instruments, including those of both the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The book contains a general report examining the fiscal rules that govern the budgets and expenditures of nation states. The general report is followed by a special report which covers the limits imposed by the European Union and by the smaller group of countries constituting the Eurozone. Ten national reports, describing the limits in their respective countries, form the basis of the general report. These countries include eight members of the European Union (five of which use the Euro and three of which do not), one other European state and one non-European state. The reports include two countries in which constitutional “debt brakes” limit national deficit and debt.

Fiscal Rules - Limits on Governmental Deficits and Debt

Fiscal Rules - Limits on Governmental Deficits and Debt PDF Author: Fred L. Morrison
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319412051
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book examines legal limitations on government deficit and debt and its impact on the ability of nations to provide services to their residents. It studies constitutional and statutory limitations, as well as those imposed by international treaties and other instruments, including those of both the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The book contains a general report examining the fiscal rules that govern the budgets and expenditures of nation states. The general report is followed by a special report which covers the limits imposed by the European Union and by the smaller group of countries constituting the Eurozone. Ten national reports, describing the limits in their respective countries, form the basis of the general report. These countries include eight members of the European Union (five of which use the Euro and three of which do not), one other European state and one non-European state. The reports include two countries in which constitutional “debt brakes” limit national deficit and debt.

Fiscal Policy Rules

Fiscal Policy Rules PDF Author: Mr.George Kopits
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 9781557757043
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 58

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Book Description
What are fiscal policy rules? What are the principal benefits and drawbacks associated with various fiscal rules, particularly compared with alternative approaches to fiscal adjustment? Can fiscal rules contribute to long-run sustainability and welfare without sacrificing short-run stabilization? If so, what characteristics of fiscal rules make this contribution most effective? And in what circumstances and contexts, if any should the IMF encourage its member countries to adopt fiscal rules? This paper seeks to identify sensible fiscal policy rules that can succeed, if chosen by a member country, as an alternative to descretionary fiscal rules.

Fiscal Rules to Tame the Political Budget Cycle

Fiscal Rules to Tame the Political Budget Cycle PDF Author: Lorenzo Forni
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 147556998X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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Book Description
The paper provides evidence that fiscal rules can limit the political budget cycle. It focuses on the application of the Italian fiscal rule at the sub-national level over the period 2004-2006 and shows that: 1) municipalities are subject to political budget cycles in capital spending; 2) the Italian subnational fiscal rule introduced in 1999 has been enforced by the central government; 3) municipalities subject to the fiscal rule show more limited political budget cycles than municipalities not subject to the rule. In order to identify the effect, we rely on the fact that the domestic fiscal rule does not apply to municipalities below 5,000 inhabitants. We find that the political budget cycle increases real capital spending by about 35 percent on average in the years prior to municipal elections and that the sub-national fiscal rule reduces these figures by about two thirds.

Second-Generation Fiscal Rules

Second-Generation Fiscal Rules PDF Author: Luc Eyraud
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1484350685
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Fiscal rule frameworks have evolved significantly in response to the global financial crisis. Many countries have reformed their fiscal rules or introduced new ones with a view to enhancing the credibility of fiscal policy and providing a medium-term anchor. Enforcement and monitoring mechanisms have also been upgraded. However, these innovations have made the systems of rules more complicated to operate, while compliance has not improved. The SDN takes stock of past experiences, reviews recent reforms, and presents new research on the effectiveness of rules. It also proposes guiding principles for future reforms to strike a better balance between simplicity, flexibility, and enforceability. Read the blog

Fiscal Rules—Anchoring Expectations for Sustainable Public Finances

Fiscal Rules—Anchoring Expectations for Sustainable Public Finances PDF Author: International Monetary Fund. Fiscal Affairs Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1498335160
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 73

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Book Description
The sharp increase in fiscal deficits and public debt in most advanced and several developing economies has raised concerns about the sustainability of public finances and highlighted the need for a significant adjustment over the medium term. This paper assesses the usefulness of fiscal rules in supporting fiscal consolidation, discusses the design and implementation of rules based on a new data base spanning the whole Fund membership, and explores the fiscal framework that could be adopted as countries emerge from the crisis.

Incentives for Public Investment Under Fiscal Rules

Incentives for Public Investment Under Fiscal Rules PDF Author: Jack M. Mintz
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Capital budget
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
The authors explore the relationship between fiscal rules and capital budgeting. The current budgetary approach to limit deficits to a fixed portion of GDP or to balance budgets could undermine incentives to invest in public capital with long-run returns since politicians concerned about electoral prospects would favor expenditures providing immediate benefits to their voters. An alternative budgetary approach is to separate capital from current revenues and expenditures and relax fiscal constraints by allowing governments to finance capital expenditures with debt, as suggested by the golden rule approach to capital funding. But the effect of capital budgeting would be to provide opportunities to politicians to escape the fiscal rule constraints by shifting current expenditures into capital accounts that are difficult to measure properly, thereby leading to increased borrowing. As an alternative, the authors propose a modified golden rule limiting debt finance to a proportion of the government's investment in self-liquidating assets.

Back to the Future: Fiscal Rules for Regaining Sustainability

Back to the Future: Fiscal Rules for Regaining Sustainability PDF Author: Mr.Serhan Cevik
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513519123
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 22

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Book Description
This paper assesses the cyclicality and sustainability of fiscal policy in Belize and applies a stochastic simulation model to determine the optimal set of fiscal rules. The empirical analysis shows that fiscal policy in Belize has been significantly procyclical and unsustainable much of the period since 1976. While the government’s recent commitment to maintain a primary surplus of at least 2 percent of GDP until 2021 is supporting debt reduction, stochastic simulations indicate that further improvement in the primary balance is necessary to reliably bring the debt-to-GDP ratio to a sustainable path. Given Belize’s history of large economic shocks, this paper proposes explicit fiscal rules designed for countercyclical policy and debt sustainability. It recommends integrating such rules into a well-designed fiscal responsibility law and establishing an independent fiscal council to improve accountability and transparency.

Restraining Yourself

Restraining Yourself PDF Author: Mr.Tamim Bayoumi
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451954700
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
State budgets in the United States played a significant macroeconomic role in the 1970s and 1980s, and the level of cyclical responsiveness was affected by the severity of statutory and constitutional fiscal restraints. Moving from no fiscal restraints to the most stringent restraints lowered the fiscal offset to income fluctuations by around 40 percent. Simulations indicate that a reduction in aggregate fiscal stabilizers of this size could lead to a significant increase in the variance of aggregate output.

Bunching at 3 Percent: The Maastricht Fiscal Criterion and Government Deficits

Bunching at 3 Percent: The Maastricht Fiscal Criterion and Government Deficits PDF Author: Francesca G Caselli
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1484372999
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
This paper estimates the effects of the Maastricht treaty’s fiscal criterion on EU countries’ general government deficits. We combine treatment effects methods with bunching estimation, and find that the 3 percent deficit rule acts as a “magnet”, increasing the number of observations around the threshold, while reducing the occurrence of both large government deficits and surpluses. After the rule is adopted, the distribution of government deficits among EU countries displays 20 percent excess mass around the deficit ceiling compared to a counterfactual distribution in which countries have the same observable characteristics but without the fiscal rule. Most of the bunching response comes from a reduction in the number of high deficit observations. We also find that the average treatment effect on fiscal deficits is positive and statistically significant. Finally, we derive country-specific impacts under a rank invariance assumption and find that all EU countries have seen their fiscal position improve on average as a result of the deficit rule.

Maximizing America's Prosperity

Maximizing America's Prosperity PDF Author: United States. Congress. Joint Economic Committee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 78

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Book Description