Inflation Targeting and Fiscal Rules: Do Interactions and Sequence of Adoption Matter?

This paper analyzes the effects of Inflation Targeting (IT) and Fiscal Rules (FR) on fiscal behaviors and inflation dynamics. Its main novelty is twofold: first, it is the first study which accounts explicitly for the role of the interactions between IT and FR regarding their fiscal and inflationary effects. Second, it questions the optimality of the sequence of adoption of IT and FR. Using a wide panel of 152 developed and developing countries over the period 1990-2009, we find that adopting both IT and FR leads to better fiscal and monetary outcomes than adopting only FR or only IT. In addition, we highlight the dominance of the sequence which consists of introducing first FR before adopting IT with respect to the opposite sequence, regarding their fiscal and inflationary effects.