Ever since its inception EMU has been subject to controversy. The fiscal policy rules embedded in the Treaty on European Union, and clarified in the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), are probably the most contentious. The SGP is being accused of being too rigid and of forcing pro-cyclicality in...

It is the purpose of this paper to focus on the consequences of the Ricardian offset to the conduct of stabilising fiscal policies. If equivalence prevails there is no scope for effective stabilising fiscal policies. A review of the theoretical requirements of Ricardian equivalence reveals that...

Credible fiscal plans that aim at restoring fiscal sustainability will be essential to counter the present increase in debt levels all across Europe. The macroeconomic scenario of such plans will be crucial. This paper assesses whether there is any advantage in delegating (part of) such power to...

We assess the response of fiscal policy to developments in asset markets in the US and the UK. We estimate fiscal policy rules augmented with aggregate wealth, wealth composition (i.e. financial and housing wealth) and asset prices (i.e. stock and housing prices) using: (i) a linear framework...

This study is based on the idea that inadequate use of fiscal policy through restrictive policies shifts the short-run demand curve that in turn induces shifts in the long-run supply curve leading to a dynamic reduction of growth. The analogy with the old metaphor of the Spanish horse seems...

Following the New Classical Macroeconomics and the New Keynesian Macroeconomics, the independence of central banks significantly increased after 1990, which could preclude the coordination between the fiscal and the monetary policies. The purpose of this paper is to consider the stabilizing...