This paper provides a first approach to the analysis of the determinants of public balances of regional (Autonomous) governments. These determinants have been divided into economic, political and institutional factors and into those factors specific to lower levels of government (fiscal...

In an influential paper, Devries et al. (2011) construct narrative series of tax- and spending-based fiscal adjustments for a panel of OECD countries. In this paper, we find that the adjustments based on spending cuts can be predicted on the basis of past output growth and other macroeconomic...

We empirically explore the influence of inflation on fiscal variables in the short, medium and long run, for the case of the Spanish economy, in particular to draw policy lessons for the design of the ongoing process of rebalancing of fiscal accounts. We focus on this topic through the lenses...

This document analyses real-time revisions in output gap estimates published by the European Commission for 15 countries over the period 2002-2014. We find that output gap revisions (both in levels and changes) are mainly driven by GDP growth forecast errors. Also, output gap revisions have...

The containment of health care expenditure is one of the major challenges facing public policymakers in the developed countries. This paper provides evidence of significant differences in the cross-country level of efficiency of health care expenditure, meaning that potential cost savings for...

Hernandez de Cos points out that changes in the structure of public sector, which were particularly large in Spain since the late seventies, could lead to significant errors in estimates of elasticities calculated on long reference periods; if only annual data are available this may greatly...

Fiscal decentralisation has been one of the key features of developments in the Spanish public sector in recent decades. There has been a gradual shift of responsibilities for the management of certain services from the State to the regional (Autonomous) governments (RGs) along with development...

En este trabajo se ilustran los efectos de distintas medidas de consolidación fiscal sobre la actividad económica mediante simulaciones realizadas con un modelo de equilibrio general calibrado para la economía española. Los resultados muestran que, con carácter general, el proceso de...

In this paper we reflect on the role that fiscal policy could play in the resolution of the crisis in Eurozone countries crippled by both public and private debt, and beset by growth and competitiveness problems. As an illustration, we revisit the Spanish case, a paradigmatic example of the...

The sovereign debt crisis in the euro area has increased the interest in early warning indicators, with the aim to indicate the build up of fiscal stress early on and to facilitate crisis prevention by a timely counteraction of fiscal and macroeconomic policies. This paper presents possible...