IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/spmain/hal-00972848.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fiscal discipline as a social norm : the European Stability Pact

Author

Listed:
  • Jean-Paul Fitoussi

    (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po)

  • Francesco Saraceno

    (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po)

Abstract

This paper reviews the arguments for and against the 'Stability and Growth Pact' signed by the countries of the Euro area. We find the theoretical debate to be inconclusive, as both externality and credibility arguments can be used to yield opposite, and equally plausible conclusions. We also argue that evidence in favour of a Pact-like rule is scant. We therefore suggest the view that the Stability Pact is a public social norm, and that a country's adherence to that norm is in fact a response to the need to preserve reputation among the other members of the European Union. Using this extreme but not implausible hypothesis, we build a simple model similar in spirit to Akerlof's (1980) seminal paper on social norms, and we show that reputation issues may cause the emergence of a stable but inferior equilibrium. We further show that after the enlargement, with a number of countries anxious to prove their 'soundness' joining the club, the problems posed by the pact/social norm are likely to increase.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Paul Fitoussi & Francesco Saraceno, 2007. "Fiscal discipline as a social norm : the European Stability Pact," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-00972848, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-00972848
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal-sciencespo.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00972848
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal-sciencespo.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00972848/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1482 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Mr. Roel M. W. J. Beetsma & Mr. Xavier Debrun & Mr. Franc Klaassen, 2001. "Is Fiscal Policy Coordination in EMU Desirable?," IMF Working Papers 2001/178, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Ludger Schuknecht, 2005. "Stability and Growth Pact: issues and lessons from political economy," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 65-89, June.
    4. Juergen Stark, 2001. "Genesis of a Pact," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Anne Brunila & Marco Buti & Daniele Franco (ed.), The Stability and Growth Pact, chapter 4, pages 77-105, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Alberto Alesina & Silvia Ardagna & Roberto Perotti & Fabio Schiantarelli, 2002. "Fiscal Policy, Profits, and Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 571-589, June.
    6. Jean‐Paul Fitoussi & Francesco Saraceno, 2008. "Fiscal Discipline as a Social Norm: The European Stability Pact," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 10(6), pages 1143-1168, December.
    7. Jean-Paul Fitoussi, 2006. "Macroeconomic Policies and Institutions," 'Angelo Costa' Lectures Serie, SIPI Spa, issue Lect. VII.
    8. Willem H. Buiter & Clemens Grafe, 2004. "Patching up the Pact," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 12(1), pages 67-102, March.
    9. Bernoth, Kerstin & von Hagen, Jürgen & Schuknecht, Ludger, 2004. "Sovereign risk premia in the European government bond market," ZEI Working Papers B 26-2003, University of Bonn, ZEI - Center for European Integration Studies.
    10. Roberto Perotti, 1999. "Fiscal Policy in Good Times and Bad," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1399-1436.
    11. Jérôme Creel & Francesco Saraceno & Paola Veroni, 2007. "Has the Golden Rule of Public Finance Made a difference in the UK," Sciences Po publications 2007-13, Sciences Po.
    12. Buti, M. & Eijffinger, S.C.W. & Franco, D., 2005. "The Stability pact Pains : A Forward-Looking Assessment of the Reform Debate," Discussion Paper 2005-101, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    13. Ardagna Silvia & Caselli Francesco & Lane Timothy, 2007. "Fiscal Discipline and the Cost of Public Debt Service: Some Estimates for OECD Countries," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-35, August.
    14. 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.
    15. Allsopp, Christopher & Davies, Gareth & Vines, David, 1995. "Regional Macroeconomic Policy, Fiscal Federalism, and European Integration," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 11(2), pages 126-144, Summer.
    16. Ardagna, Silvia & Caselli, Francesco & Lane, Timothy, 2004. "Fiscal discipline and the cost of public dept service: some estiames for OECD countries," Working Paper Series 411, European Central Bank.
    17. Thomas Laubach, 2009. "New Evidence on the Interest Rate Effects of Budget Deficits and Debt," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(4), pages 858-885, June.
    18. Alberto Alesina & Roberto Perotti, 1997. "Fiscal Adjustments in OECD Countries: Composition and Macroeconomic Effects," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 44(2), pages 210-248, June.
    19. Antonio Fatás & Ilian Mihov, 2003. "The Case for Restricting Fiscal Policy Discretion," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1419-1447.
    20. Hughes Hallett,Andrew & Hutchison,Michael M. & Hougaard Jensen,Svend E. (ed.), 1999. "Fiscal Aspects of European Monetary Integration," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521651622.
    21. Jensen, Henrik, 1996. "The advantage of international fiscal cooperation under alternative monetary regimes," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 485-504, November.
    22. Steven R. Cunningham & Jon Vilasuso, 1995. "Is Keynesian Demand Management Policy Still Viable?," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., vol. 17(2), pages 187-210, January.
    23. Andersen, Torben M. & Sorensen, Jan Rose, 1995. "Unemployment and fiscal policy in an economic and monetary union," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 27-43, March.
    24. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Geoffrey Williams, 2002. "Long‐term nominal interest rates and domestic fundamentals," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(2), pages 119-130.
    25. Dixon, Huw David & Santoni, Michele, 1997. "Fiscal Policy Coordination with Demand Spillovers and Unionised Labour Markets," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(441), pages 403-417, March.
    26. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1181 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. George A. Akerlof, 1980. "A Theory of Social Custom, of which Unemployment may be One Consequence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(4), pages 749-775.
    28. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/1482 is not listed on IDEAS
    29. Elster, Jon, 1989. "Social Norms and Economic Theory," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 99-117, Fall.
    30. Marco Catenaro & Patrizio Tirelli, 1999. "Reconsidering The Pros and Cons of Fiscal Policy Coordination in a Monetary Union: Should We Set Public Expenditure Targets?," Working Papers 30, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Sep 2000.
    31. Steven R. Cunningham & Jon Vilasuso, 1994. "Is Keynesian Demand Management Policy Still Viable?," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 187-210, December.
    32. Levine, Paul & Brociner, Andrew, 1994. "Fiscal policy coordination and EMU : A dynamic game approach," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 18(3-4), pages 699-729.
    33. Yash P. Mehra, 1992. "Deficits and long-term interest rates: an empirical note," Working Paper 92-02, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    34. Stuart Landon & Constance E. Smith, 2000. "Government debt spillovers and creditworthiness in a federation," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 33(3), pages 634-661, August.
    35. Matthew B. Canzoneri & Robert E. Cumby & Behzad T. Diba, 2002. "Should the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve be concerned about fiscal policy?," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 333-389.
    36. repec:hrv:faseco:3353756 is not listed on IDEAS
    37. Unknown, 2005. "Forward," 2005 Conference: Slovenia in the EU - Challenges for Agriculture, Food Science and Rural Affairs, November 10-11, 2005, Moravske Toplice, Slovenia 183804, Slovenian Association of Agricultural Economists (DAES).
    38. Francesco Saraceno & Paola Veroni, 2006. "Whither Stability Pact? An Assessment of Reform Proposals," Post-Print hal-03417127, HAL.
    39. Detken, Carsten & Winkler, Bernhard & Gaspar, Ví­tor, 2004. "On prosperity and posterity: the need for fiscal discipline in a monetary union," Working Paper Series 420, European Central Bank.
    40. von Hagen, Jurgen & Schuknecht, Ludger & Bernoth, Kerstin, 2004. "Sovereign Risk Premia in the European Bond Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 4465, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    41. Barry Eichengreen & Charles Wyplosz, 1998. "The Stability Pact: more than a minor nuisance?," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 13(26), pages 66-113.
    42. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/1181 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1482 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9909 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/9909 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/9909 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/1482 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/1482 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Jean-Paul Fitoussi & Francesco Saraceno, 2002. "A Theory of Social Custom of Which Soft Growth May Be One Consequence. Tales of the European Stability Pact," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01065024, HAL.
    8. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/1422 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1422 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/1422 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Ardagna, Silvia, 2009. "Financial markets' behavior around episodes of large changes in the fiscal stance," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 37-55, January.
    12. Leopold Diebalek & Doris Prammer, 2006. "Reform of the Stability and Growth Pact," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 1, pages 78-109.
    13. 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.
    14. Javier Andrés & Rafael Doménech, 2006. "Fiscal Rules and Macroeconomic Stability," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 176(1), pages 9-41, April.
    15. Jean-Paul Fitoussi & Francesco Saraceno, 2007. "Normes sociales et politiques européennes," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(3), pages 283-314.
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/4047 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Vyprachticka, Terezie, 2011. "Could the Stability and Growth Pact be Substituted by the Financial Markets?," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 15, September.
    18. Mr. Roel M. W. J. Beetsma & Mr. Xavier Debrun & Mr. Franc Klaassen, 2001. "Is Fiscal Policy Coordination in EMU Desirable?," IMF Working Papers 2001/178, International Monetary Fund.
    19. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/1769 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Landon, Stuart & Smith, Constance E., 2007. "Government debt spillovers in a monetary union," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 135-154, August.
    21. Bruno Ducoudré, 2005. "Fiscal policy and interest rates," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2005-08, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    22. Jérôme Creel & Bruno Ducoudré & Catherine Mathieu & Henri Sterdyniak, 2005. "Doit-on oublier la politique budgétaire ?. Une analyse critique de la nouvelle théorie anti-keynésienne des finances publiques," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 92(1), pages 43-97.
    23. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/1769 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Stefano Schiavo, 2005. "Euro bonds: in search of financial spillovers," Sciences Po publications 2, Sciences Po.
    25. Philipp Paulus, 2006. "The final blow to the Stability Pact? EMU enlargement and government debt," Otto-Wolff-Institut Discussion Paper Series 03/2006, Otto-Wolff-Institut für Wirtschaftsordnung, Köln, Deutschland.
    26. Fiorella Kostoris Padoa Schioppa, 2006. "The 2005 Reform of the Stability and Growth Pact: Too Little, Too Late?," Bruges European Economic Research Papers 6, European Economic Studies Department, College of Europe.
    27. Leopold Diebalek & Walpurga Köhler-Töglhofer & Doris Prammer, 2006. "Reform of the Stability and Growth Pact," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue Q1/06, pages 78-109.
    28. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1769 is not listed on IDEAS
    29. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/7162 is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Philipp Paulus, 2006. "Brüssel, Frankfurt oder Basel - Wo muss das Problem steigender Staatsschulden in der Europäischen Währungsunion gelöst werden?," Otto-Wolff-Institut Discussion Paper Series 01/2006, Otto-Wolff-Institut für Wirtschaftsordnung, Köln, Deutschland.
    31. Maria Neicheva, 2006. "Non-Keynesian Effects of Government Expenditure on Output in Bulgaria: An HP Filter Approach," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 1-12.
    32. Peppel-Srebrny, Jemima, 2021. "Not all government budget deficits are created equal: Evidence from advanced economies' sovereign bond markets," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    33. Burger, Anton, 2006. "Reasons for the U.S. growth period in the nineties: non-keynesian effects, asset wealth and productivity," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 95, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    34. Coenen, Günter & Mohr, Matthias & Straub, Roland, 2008. "Fiscal consolidation in the euro area: Long-run benefits and short-run costs," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 912-932, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Stability Pact; Fiscal Rules; Social Norms; Fiscal Policy; Pacte de stabilité; politique fiscale; normes sociales; normes fiscales;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E63 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Comparative or Joint Analysis of Fiscal and Monetary Policy; Stabilization; Treasury Policy

    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:hal:spmain:hal-00972848. 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: Contact - Sciences Po Departement of Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.