. In this paper we re-examine the long-run sustainability of US budget de…cits, using Bai and Perron’s multiple structural change approach. While the de…cit would have been weakly sustainable over the full sample (1947:1-2004:3), strong sustainability would appear only between 1982:1 and...

This paper explores the impact of decentralization on countries' fiscal outcomes paying attention to one aspect usually neglected in the literature: the relevance of self-interested local politics. Relevance that can be proxied by the nationalization of political party systems, namely the extent...

This article provides empirical evidence on the effect of fiscal consolidation in decentralized countries. The focus on Spain is justified for three reasons. First, it is one of the OECD countries that has been the most affected by the Great Recession in terms of both GDP and public deficit....