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Lessons Learned from Tax vs. Expenditure Based Fiscal Consolidation in the European Transition Economies

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  • Rajmund Mirdala

Abstract

European Union member countries are currently exposed to negative implications of the economic and debt crisis. Questions associated with disputable implications of fiscal incentives seem to be contrary to the crucial need of the effective fiscal consolidation that is necessary to reduce excessive fiscal deficits and high sovereign debts. While challenges addressed to the fiscal policy and its anti-cyclical potential rose steadily but not desperately since the beginning of the economic crisis, the call for fiscal consolidation became urgent almost immediately and this need significantly strengthen after the debt crisis contagion flooded Europe. In the paper we provide an overview of main trends in public budgets and sovereign debts in ten European transition economies during last two decades. We identify episodes of successful and unsuccessful (cold showers versus gradual) fiscal (expenditure versus revenue based) consolidations by analyzing effects of improvements in cyclically adjusted primary balance on the sovereign debt ratio reduction. We also estimate VAR model to analyze effects of fiscal shocks (based on one standard deviation in total expenditure, direct and indirect taxes) to real output. It is expected that responses of real output to different types of (consolidating) fiscal shocks may vary and thus provide more precise ideas about a feasibility (i.e. side effects on the macroeconomic performance) of expenditure versus revenue based fiscal consolidation episodes. Economic effects of fiscal consolidating adjustments are evaluated for two periods (pre-crisis and extended) to reveal crisis effects on fiscal consolidation efforts.

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  • Rajmund Mirdala, 2013. "Lessons Learned from Tax vs. Expenditure Based Fiscal Consolidation in the European Transition Economies," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp1058, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    • Handle: RePEc:wdi:papers:2013-1058
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Lucia Mihokova, 2017. "Fiscal Consolidation Start and its Determinants Analysis Within European Member Countries," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 13(3), pages 135-148.
    2. Milenko Krajišnik & Dragan Gligoriæ & Biljana Gojkoviæ, 2019. "Effects of fiscal consolidation in Western Balkan Countries," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 37(2), pages 527-551.
    3. Stanova, Nadja, 2015. "Effects of fiscal shocks in new EU members estimated from a SVARX model with debt feedback," MPRA Paper 63148, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. repec:mje:mjejnl:v:12:y:2017:i:3:p:135-148 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Stanova, Nadja, 2015. "Fiscal discretion, growth and output volatility in new EU member countries," MPRA Paper 63946, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    fiscal policy adjustments; fiscal consolidation; cyclically adjusted primary balance; government expenditures; tax revenues; unrestricted VAR; Cholesky decomposition; SVAR; structural shocks; impulse-response function;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • H60 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - General

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