This paper explores the reasons for the suboptimal fiscal-monetary policy mix in the euro area in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and ways in which the status quo can be improved. A comparison of fiscal and monetary policies and of economic outcomes in the euro area and the United...

This paper presents an indicator of fiscal distress for European economies based on a multivariate regression analysis (logit modelling, the L1 indicator) and on a recently updated dataset of fiscal stress episodes. This indicator presents some interesting features: relying on a parsimonious set...

The present study contributes to the discussion on the new European tax or fee, which would be based on taxing end consumption (taxing the products and not the production) according to how much CO2 is emitted during the production of particular commodities, irrespective of whether all or a part...

Between 2010 and 2013, the Czech Republic undertook a significant fiscal consolidation that cut the headline government deficit by about 4.5 pps., bringing it well below the reference value in the Treaty. This consolidation was largely achieved by discretionary fiscal measures in two areas:...

This note describes model simulations that broadly confirm the view that at the current juncture, with monetary policy constrained by the zero interest rate floor, a debt-financed increase in government investment in surplus countries will have positive GDP spillovers to the rest of the euro...

We introduce a non-linear model to study the adjustment of fiscal policy variables in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain over the last 50 years, based on endogenously estimated budget deficit-to-GDP thresholds, which vary with fiscal disequilibria, the economic cycle and financial market...

This paper discusses the fiscal policy implications of applying an alternative output gap methodology. The alternative methodology replaces the NAWRU by the structural unemployment rate (SUR) estimated by DG ECFIN in the calculation of potential GDP. The note studies how the use of this method...

Should rational agents take into consideration government policy announcements? A skilled agent (an econometrician) could set up a model to combine the following two pieces of information in order to anticipate the future course of fiscal policy in real-time: (i) the ex-ante path of policy as...

Can discretionary increases in government spending stimulate the economy? We answer this question by taking into account both the information flow on fiscal measures and the role played by information frictions. Using a novel set of empirical proxies for fiscal news and agents' misperceptions,...