Fiscal rules are a frequent policy measure to restrict deficit-taking among incumbent politicians. In times of increased and sustained investment needs to mitigate the consequences of climate change, and to promote the digital and structural transformation, fiscal rules have become subject to...

The European Commission recently resumed a public consultation on the EU’s economic governance framework with the aim of gathering views and proposals on how to build a more transparent and effective fiscal policy framework. The present essay aims to assess current fiscal rules and alternative...

We estimate short-run reactions of government bond spreads of selected EU countries to prime ministers' and finance ministers' public statements about fiscal policy from 2000 to 2019. Our dataset, which is based on the Factiva database, covers news that reached the markets via Reuters. Depending...

In emerging markets, unexpected public expenditure reductions increase firm-level investment, which quickly surpasses pre-shock levels after a temporary contraction, owing to a decline in financing costs. Investment’s recovery is facilitated by fiscal space, exchange rate flexibility, and...

With an outstandingly long data set of Swiss cantonal public finances we study whether the Swiss subnational level runs sustainable fiscal policies. Going back to the year 1905, we test for stationarity of cantonal public debt, revenue and spending and for cointegration between cantonal revenues...

Fiscal rules are argued to be important for sound and sustainable fiscal policies and have been increasingly adopted over the last 20 years. However, as increased fiscal pressure and fiscal risks urge countries to address the public debt legacy left by recent economic crises, fiscal rules come...