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Political Budget Cycles in Early Versus Regular Elections: The Case of Serbia

Author

Listed:
  • Vladan Ivanovic

    (University of Kragujevac
    CERGE-EI)

  • Endrit Lami

    (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
    Ministry of Finance and Economy of Albania)

  • Drini Imami

    (CERGE-EI
    Agricultural University of Tirana)

Abstract

The paper analyses Political Budget Cycles in the context of a young post-communist democracy, Serbia. The authors deploy well-established methodological (time series) approaches to examine the general government budget balance (fiscal deficit) in conjunction with elections. The findings suggest that there is clear evidence of higher fiscal deficit prior to elections—however, this is the case only for regular (scheduled) elections and not so for snap (early called) elections. The paper contributes to the PBC literature by revealing different incumbent behaviour in regular versus early elections, thus highlighting the importance of distinguishing between these types of elections in the domain of PBC research.

Suggested Citation

  • Vladan Ivanovic & Endrit Lami & Drini Imami, 2023. "Political Budget Cycles in Early Versus Regular Elections: The Case of Serbia," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 65(3), pages 551-581, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:compes:v:65:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1057_s41294-023-00210-0
    DOI: 10.1057/s41294-023-00210-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political budget cycles; Budget balance (deficit); Early elections; Regular elections; Serbia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance

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