This paper examines the development of fiscal rules and budget procedures in EU countries, and their impact of public finances since the mid-1980s. It presents a new data set on institutional reforms and their impact in Europe. Empirical pattern confirm our prediction that more stringent fiscal...

The use of futures exchange contracts instead of forwards completes the maturityspectrum of the correlation between the spot yield and the premium. We find that theforward premium puzzle (FPP) depends significantly on the maturity horizon of thefutures contract and the choice of the sampling...