Economic growth is projected to be strengthening from mid-2011 onwards, but will be insufficient to restore the sustainability of public finances. The Belgian strategy to prefund ageing costs by generating fiscal surpluses to bring down public debt was derailed by the global crisis. Restoring...

The current paper emphasizes, besides the definitions specific to the public debt concepts, the government public debt and the local public debt, as well as some data related to the gross government debt, in accordance to the European Union methodology, the analysis of influencing the economic...

The debate on fiscal consolidation is dominated by controversies about the negative impact of consolidation on growth. This contribution shortly summarizes the discussion about links between fiscal consolidation and growth. In addition, common advice that is derived from arguments about the...

Entre 1986 (adesão à União Europeia) e 2010 (ano anterior ao terceiro pedido de assistência financeira externa), Portugal apresentou défices orçamentais persistentes. A combinação entre a consequente acumulação de dívida e a década de 2000 de estagnação económica culminou na perda...

We consider an economy where competing political parties alternate in office. Due to rent-seeking motives, incumbents have an incentive to set public expenditures above the socially optimum level. Parties cannot commit to future policies, but they can forge a political compromise where each...

We consider an economy where competing political parties alternate in office. Due to rent-seeking motives, incumbents have an incentive to set public expenditures above the socially optimum level. Parties cannot commit to future policies, but they can forge a political compromise where each...

In this paper we construct Financial Conditions Indices (FCIs) for the euro area, for the period 2003 to 2011, using a wide range of prices, quantities, spreads and survey data, grounded in the theoretical literature. One FCI includes monetary policy variables, while two versions of the FCI...

The recent financial crisis was characterized by the sizeable fiscal cost of banking sector bail out operations and the significant automatic and discretionary fiscal policy response to shrinking output, which have put increased pressure on public finances in many industrialized countries. This...

We consider an economy where competing political parties alternate in office. Due to rent-seeking motives, incumbents have an incentive to set public expenditures above the socially optimum level. Parties cannot commit to future policies, but they can forge a political compromise where each...