We investigate the use of financial information in the determination of budget cuts under unprecedented fiscal pressure caused by COVID-19. Especially, we concentrate on financial information such as budget execution rates, the ratio of a project’s cumulative annual executed budget (i.e.,...

The Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic bequeathed large increases in public debt. At some point governments may seek to bring down these elevated debt-to-GDP ratios, including by inflating (by raising nominal GDP). We assemble a panel of debt consolidation episodes spanning 220...

Fiscal consolidation literature often neglects that there are economies with a sizable underground sector and that most of time it is accounted in GDP statistics. This produces non negligible effects on fiscal multipliers. This paper explores a fiscal consolidation plan calling for a downsizing...

Anders als die Bundesregierung es anzustreben scheint, ist eine Reform des Stabilitäts- und Wachstumspakts (SWP) nötig. Die Schuldenabbauregel zwingt hochverschuldete Euroländer zu einem zu schnellen und zu wachstumsschädlichen Schuldenabbau. Nur auf die Flexibilität des Pakts zu setzen,...

The 2007 global crisis triggered a severe sovereign debt crisis in Portugal, which led to the need to comply with an Economic Adjustment Programme (EAP) based, among other pillars, on fiscal consolidation. According to our literature review, the economic environment in which the adjustment...