Does the Swiss debt brake induce sound federal finances? : a synthetic control analysis

Christian F. Pfeil, Lars P. Feld

The Swiss debt brake is widely appreciated as one of the most rationally designed fiscal rules in the world and was thus also discussed as blueprint in the debates about fiscal rules in Germany, the European Union member states and Israel. However, evidence that this rule really contributes to sound federal finances does not exist yet. We investigate the effectiveness of the Swiss debt brake by employing the Synthetic Control Method. We find that the introduction of this fiscal rule improved the budget balance by about 3.6 percentage points on average in a post-intervention period covering five years.

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Year of publication:	August 2016
Authors:	Pfeil, Christian F. ; Feld, Lars P.
Publisher:	München : CESifo, Center for Economic Studies & Ifo Institute
Subject:	Swiss debt brake \| cyclically adjusted budget balance \| government debt \| synthetic control method \| Öffentliche Schulden \| Public debt \| Schweiz \| Switzerland \| Haushaltskonsolidierung \| Fiscal consolidation \| Wirkungsanalyse \| Impact assessment \| Haushaltsdefizit \| Budget deficit \| Regelbindung versus Diskretion \| Rules versus discretion \| Konjunktur \| Business cycle \| Öffentlicher Haushalt \| Public budget \| Finanzpolitik \| Fiscal policy \| Öffentliche Ausgaben \| Public expenditure

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Extent:	1 Online-Ressource (circa 34 Seiten) Illustrationen
Series:	CESifo working papers. - München : [Verlag nicht ermittelbar], ISSN 2364-1428, ZDB-ID 2065232-X. - Vol. no. 6044
Type of publication:	Book / Working Paper
Type of publication (narrower categories):	Arbeitspapier ; Working Paper ; Graue Literatur ; Non-commercial literature
Language:	English
Other identifiers:	hdl:10419/145079 [Handle]
Classification:	H11 - Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government ; H60 - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt. General
Source:	ECONIS - Online Catalogue of the ZBW

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011521945