IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mhr/finarc/urnsici0015-2218(201612)724_421frfsat_2.0.tx_2-k.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fiscal Rules, Fiscal Space, and the Procyclicality of Fiscal Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Carolin Nerlich
  • Wolf Heinrich Reuter

Abstract

We analyze the interaction of fiscal rules and fiscal space. We find strong evidence for fiscal rules being associated with higher fiscal space for the EU27 countries for the period 1990-2014. Furthermore, the analysis shows that countries with more fiscal space tend to have higher discretionary expenditures, but that this effect is significantly reduced if fiscal rules are in place. Moreover, we find support for the hypothesis that the procyclicality of fiscal policy is significantly higher in an environment of ample fiscal space and that fiscal rules can help lowering this procyclicality.

Suggested Citation

  • Carolin Nerlich & Wolf Heinrich Reuter, 2016. "Fiscal Rules, Fiscal Space, and the Procyclicality of Fiscal Policy," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 72(4), pages 421-452, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:mhr:finarc:urn:sici:0015-2218(201612)72:4_421:frfsat_2.0.tx_2-k
    DOI: 10.1628/001522108X14785541072981
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/article/fiscal-rules-fiscal-space-and-the-procyclicality-of-fiscal-policy-101628001522116x14785541072981
    Download Restriction: Fulltext access is included for subscribers to the printed version.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1628/001522108X14785541072981?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mendoza, Enrique G. & Ostry, Jonathan D., 2008. "International evidence on fiscal solvency: Is fiscal policy "responsible"?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(6), pages 1081-1093, September.
    2. Mr. Seok G Park, 2012. "Quantifying Impact of Aging Population on Fiscal Space," IMF Working Papers 2012/164, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Mr. Jonathan David Ostry & Mr. Abdul d Abiad, 2005. "Primary Surpluses and sustainable Debt Levels in Emerging Market Countries," IMF Policy Discussion Papers 2005/006, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Nerlich, Carolin & Reuter, Wolf Heinrich, 2013. "The design of national fiscal frameworks and their budgetary impact," Working Paper Series 1588, European Central Bank.
    5. Reinhart, C. M., 2012. "The return of financial repression," Financial Stability Review, Banque de France, issue 16, pages 37-48, April.
    6. Yeter, Mustafa & Heinemann, Friedrich, 2014. "The effects of fiscal rules on public finances and their identification," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100425, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    7. Atish R. Ghosh & Jun I. Kim & Enrique G. Mendoza & Jonathan D. Ostry & Mahvash S. Qureshi, 2013. "Fiscal Fatigue, Fiscal Space and Debt Sustainability in Advanced Economies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0, pages 4-30, February.
    8. Beck, Nathaniel & Katz, Jonathan N., 1995. "What To Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(3), pages 634-647, September.
    9. Frantisek Hajnovic & Juraj Zeman, 2012. "Fiscal Space in the Euro zone," Working and Discussion Papers WP 5/2012, Research Department, National Bank of Slovakia.
    10. Iara, Anna & Wolff, Guntram B., 2014. "Rules and risk in the Euro area," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 222-236.
    11. Allen Schick, 2009. "Budgeting for fiscal space," OECD Journal on Budgeting, OECD Publishing, vol. 9(2), pages 1-18.
    12. Olivier Blanchard & Roberto Perotti, 2002. "An Empirical Characterization of the Dynamic Effects of Changes in Government Spending and Taxes on Output," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(4), pages 1329-1368.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ulrich Ekouala Makala, 2022. "An empirical study of public debt sustainability based on fiscal fatigue and fiscal space in CEMAC countries," International Studies of Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(3), pages 334-370, September.
    2. J. Stephen Ferris & Bharatee Bhusana Dash, 2019. "Expenditure visibility and voter memory: a compositional approach to the political budget cycle in Indian states, 1959–2012," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 129-157, June.
    3. António Afonso & José Alves & João Tovar Jalles & Sofia Monteiro, 2024. "Beyond the Centre: Tracing Decentralization’s Influence on Time-varying Fiscal Sustainability," Working Papers REM 2024/0324, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    4. Marcella Alifia Kuswana Putri & Chandra Utama & Ivantia Savitri Mokoginta, 2022. "The Impact Of Fiscal Space On Indonesia’S Fiscal Behavior," Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking, Bank Indonesia, vol. 25(2), pages 235-256, August.
    5. António Afonso & João Tovar Jalles & Ana Venâncio, 2024. "A tale of government spending efficiency and trust in the state," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 200(1), pages 89-118, July.
    6. Svetlana Demidova & Yuliya Tyurina & Anastasia Kulachinskaya & Olga Buzdalina & Igor V. Ilin & Victoriya Razletovskaia & Chulpan A. Misbakhova, 2024. "An Assessment of the Effectiveness and Scale of Tax Expenditures to Support Investments and Priority Sectors in G20 Countries," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-26, June.
    7. Adam Pigoń & Michał Ramsza, 2022. "A Comparison of German, Swiss, and Polish Fiscal Rules Using Monte Carlo Simulations," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 4, pages 17-41.
    8. Combes, Jean-Louis & Minea, Alexandru & Sow, Moussé, 2017. "Is fiscal policy always counter- (pro-) cyclical? The role of public debt and fiscal rules," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 138-146.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nerlich, Carolin & Reuter, Wolf Heinrich, 2015. "Fiscal rules, fiscal space and procyclical fiscal policy," Working Paper Series 1872, European Central Bank.
    2. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon & Jean-François Brun, 2020. "Tax reform and fiscal space in developing countries," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(2), pages 237-265, June.
    3. Checherita-Westphal, Cristina & Žďárek, Václav, 2017. "Fiscal reaction function and fiscal fatigue: evidence for the euro area," Working Paper Series 2036, European Central Bank.
    4. Sena Kimm Gnangnon, 2019. "De Facto Fiscal Space in Donor-countries and Their Aid Supply: To What Extent is Trade-related Aid Supply Affected?," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, June.
    5. Ms. Anja Baum & Andrew Hodge & Ms. Aiko Mineshima & Ms. Marialuz Moreno Badia & Rene Tapsoba, 2017. "Can They Do It All? Fiscal Space in Low-Income Countries," IMF Working Papers 2017/110, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Hyejin Ko, 2020. "Measuring fiscal sustainability in the welfare state: fiscal space as fiscal sustainability," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 531-554, May.
    7. Ioana-Laura Țibulcă, 2021. "Debt Sustainability: Can EU Member States Use Environmental Taxes to Regain Fiscal Space?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, May.
    8. Djedje Hermann Yohou, 2015. "In Search of Fiscal Space in Africa: The Role of the Quality of Government Spending," CERDI Working papers halshs-01222812, HAL.
    9. Robertson, D. & Tambakis, D., 2016. "Long-Run Debt Ratios with Fiscal Fatigue," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1674, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    10. Lozano-Espitia, Ignacio & Julio-Román, J. Manuel, 2020. "Debt limits and fiscal space for some Latin American economies," Latin American Journal of Central Banking (previously Monetaria), Elsevier, vol. 1(1).
    11. Pienkowski Alex, 2017. "Debt Limits and the Structure of Public Debt," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 8(2), pages 1-16, December.
    12. David Barr & Oliver Bush & Alex Pienkowski, 2014. "GDP-linked Bonds and Sovereign Default," International Economic Association Series, in: Joseph E. Stiglitz & Daniel Heymann (ed.), Life After Debt, chapter 4, pages 246-275, Palgrave Macmillan.
    13. Pablo Anaya & Alex Pienkowski, 2015. "What Really Drives Public Debt: A Holistic Approach," IMF Working Papers 2015/137, International Monetary Fund.
    14. Mihaela Onofrei & Tudorel Toader & Anca Florentina Vatamanu & Florin Oprea, 2021. "Impact of Governments’ Fiscal Behaviors on Public Finance Sustainability: A Comparative Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, March.
    15. Ignacio Lozano-Espitia & Juan Manuel Julio-Román, 2019. "Límite de la Deuda Pública y Espacio Fiscal: Análisis para Colombia y Otros Mercados Emergentes," Borradores de Economia 1076, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    16. Ghosh, Atish R. & Ostry, Jonathan D. & Qureshi, Mahvash S., 2013. "Fiscal space and sovereign risk pricing in a currency union," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 131-163.
    17. Reuter, Wolf Heinrich, 2015. "National numerical fiscal rules: Not complied with, but still effective?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 67-81.
    18. Ostry, Jonathan D. & Debrun, Xavier & Willems, Tim & Wyplosz, Charles, 2019. "Public Debt Sustainability," CEPR Discussion Papers 14010, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Edward F. Buffie & Manoj Atolia, 2016. "Fiscal Adjustment and Inflation Targeting in Less Developed Countries," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(8), pages 1839-1875, December.
    20. R. Golinelli & I. Mammi & A. Musolesi, 2018. "Parameter heterogeneity, persistence and cross-sectional dependence: new insights on fiscal policy reaction functions for the Euro area," Working Papers wp1120, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    fiscal space; fiscal rules; discretionary fiscal policy; procyclicality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E61 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H60 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mhr:finarc:urn:sici:0015-2218(201612)72:4_421:frfsat_2.0.tx_2-k. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thomas Wolpert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/fa .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.