This paper evaluates the strength of automatic fiscal stabilizers in European countries by applying to the EU countries Taylor (2000)?'s methodology, which relates the budget balance to the output gap and the structural budget balance. Estimates are provided for the EU and for each of the EU...

We study the relationship between the change in the cyclically-adjusted primary balance and the change in the output gap. The former variable is taken as an indicator of discretionary fiscal policy. The latter is an indicator of cyclical conditions. We use panel data for the euro area and data...