IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cbi/wpaper/15-rt-11.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fiscal fan charts - A tool for assessing member states’ (likely?) compliance with EU fiscal rules

Author

Listed:
  • Cronin, David

    (Central Bank of Ireland)

  • Dowd, Kevin

    (Cass Business School, City University, London)

Abstract

This paper sets out a methodology for constructing fan charts for the government deficit and debt ratios over the medium-term. It relies on information contained in Stability/Convergence Programme Updates, a model of the relevant stochastic process (for example, the real GDP process) or processes, and a parameter estimate of the sensitivity of the primary budget balance to the output gap for the member state under consideration. A model of the dynamic deficit-debt relationship allows the impact of random output growth to work its way through the fiscal arithmetic in a consistent and traceable way to produce fan charts over a five-year forecast horizon. The initial set of fiscal fan charts included here for Ireland use the indicative public finance projections set out in the 2011 Update for Ireland. The range of possible fiscal outcomes in the charts assumes no fiscal policy response to any change in the budgetary position over the period such as could arise from changes in growth rates. This assumption of “no policy change” is a standard one in the construction of fan charts. Governments will, however, generally be in a position to adjust fiscal policy towards meeting a specific fiscal target, such as reaching a deficit position of less than 3 percent of GDP in the medium-term. A second set of fan charts is included which indicates how the probabilistic range of fiscal outcomes could be affected by a tightening of fiscal policy in 2013-2015.

Suggested Citation

  • Cronin, David & Dowd, Kevin, 2011. "Fiscal fan charts - A tool for assessing member states’ (likely?) compliance with EU fiscal rules," Research Technical Papers 15/RT/11, Central Bank of Ireland.
  • Handle: RePEc:cbi:wpaper:15/rt/11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://centralbank.ie/docs/default-source/publications/research-technical-papers/research-technical-paper-15rt11.pdf?sfvrsn=8
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francesco Giavazzi & Marco Pagano, 1990. "Can Severe Fiscal Contractions Be Expansionary? Tales of Two Small European Countries," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1990, Volume 5, pages 75-122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Mr. E. H. Gardner & Mr. Julian Di Giovanni, 2008. "A Simple Stochastic Approach to Debt Sustainability Applied to Lebanon," IMF Working Papers 2008/097, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Kenneth F. Wallis, 2004. "An Assessment of Bank of England and National Institute Inflation Forecast Uncertainties," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 189(1), pages 64-71, July.
    4. Kenneth F. Wallis, 2004. "An Assessment of Bank of England and National Institute Inflation Forecast Uncertainties," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 189(1), pages 64-71, July.
    5. Oya Celasun & Geoffrey N. Keim, 2010. "The Us Federal Debt Outlook: Reading the Tea Leaves," IMF Working Papers 2010/062, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Mr. Daniel Leigh & Mr. Andrea Pescatori & Mr. Jaime Guajardo, 2011. "Expansionary Austerity New International Evidence," IMF Working Papers 2011/158, International Monetary Fund.
    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. Yim, Ha-Neul & Riddell, Jordan R. & Wheeler, Andrew P., 2020. "Is the recent increase in national homicide abnormal? Testing the application of fan charts in monitoring national homicide trends over time," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    2. Yim, Ha-Neul & Riddell, Jordan R. & Wheeler, Andrew Palmer, 2019. "Is the recent increase in national homicide abnormal? Testing the application of fan charts in monitoring national homicide trends over time," SocArXiv 7g32n, Center for Open Science.

    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. Emerson JACKSON & Edmund TAMUKE, 2018. "Probability Forecast Using Fan Chart Analysis A Case of the Sierra Leone Economy," Journal of Advanced Studies in Finance, ASERS Publishing, vol. 9(1), pages 34-44.
    2. Hall, Stephen G. & Mitchell, James, 2007. "Combining density forecasts," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 1-13.
    3. Goodhart, C. A. E. & Pradhan, Manoj, 2023. "A snapshot of Central Bank (two year) forecasting: a mixed picture," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118680, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Chris McDonald & Craig Thamotheram & Shaun P. Vahey & Elizabeth C. Wakerly, 2016. "Assessing the economic value of probabilistic forecasts in the presence of an inflation target," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Discussion Paper Series DP2016/10, Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
    5. Seohyun Lee, 2025. "Measuring Interdependence of Inflation Uncertainty," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 65(5), pages 2707-2741, May.
    6. Alberto Botta, 2020. "The short- and long-run inconsistency of the expansionary austerity theory: a post-Keynesian/evolutionist critique," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 143-177, January.
    7. Christoph A. Schaltegger & Martin Weder, 2014. "Fiscal adjustment and the costs of public debt service: evidence from OECD countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(22), pages 2593-2610, August.
    8. Szilárd Benk & Zoltán M. Jakab, 2012. "Non-Keynesian Effects of Fiscal Consolidation: An Analysis with an Estimated DSGE Model for the Hungarian Economy," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 945, OECD Publishing.
    9. Giavazzi, Francesco & Alesina, Alberto & Favero, Carlo A., 2012. "The output effect of fiscal consolidations," CEPR Discussion Papers 9105, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Roel Beetsma & Jacopo Cimadomo & Oana Furtuna & Massimo Giuliodori1, 2015. "The confidence effects of fiscal consolidations," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 30(83), pages 439-489.
    11. Pfajfar, D. & Zakelj, B., 2012. "Uncertainty and Disagreement in Forecasting Inflation : Evidence from the Laboratory (Revised version of CentER DP 2011-053)," Other publications TiSEM 38fac5ce-fe8f-4b61-a679-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    12. Branimir Jovanovic, 2017. "Growth forecast errors and government investment and consumption multipliers," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 83-107, January.
    13. Ponticelli, Jacopo & Voth, Hans-Joachim, 2020. "Austerity and anarchy: Budget cuts and social unrest in Europe, 1919–2008," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 1-19.
    14. Dennis Bonam & Jasper Lukkezen, 2013. "Government Spending Shocks, Sovereign Risk and the Exchange Rate Regime," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-212/VI, Tinbergen Institute, revised 09 Jan 2013.
    15. Krüger, Fabian & Nolte, Ingmar, 2016. "Disagreement versus uncertainty: Evidence from distribution forecasts," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(S), pages 172-186.
    16. Afonso, António & Jalles, João Tovar, 2014. "Assessing fiscal episodes," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 255-270.
    17. Goodhart Charles A.E., 2005. "The Monetary Policy Committee's Reaction Function: An Exercise in Estimation," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-42, August.
    18. Schultefrankenfeld Guido, 2013. "Forecast uncertainty and the Bank of England’s interest rate decisions," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 1-20, February.
    19. Argentino Pessoa, 2013. "Regional integration and the euro crisis: problems and solutions," ERSA conference papers ersa13p1153, European Regional Science Association.
    20. Andrea Tafuro, 2015. "The Effects of Fiscal Policy on Employment: an Analysis of the Aggregate Evidence," Working Papers 2015: 03, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C15 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Statistical Simulation Methods: General
    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cbi:wpaper:15/rt/11. 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: Fiona Farrelly (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbigvie.html .

    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.