IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/alufin/77.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Public finances in the European Union: Is convergence sustainable?

Author

Listed:
  • Bonin, Holger
  • Raffelhüschen, Bernd

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the latest generational accounting results for 12 of the 15 EU member states, which were prepared on behalf of the European Commission by an international team of experts. We proceed as follows: Section 2 summarises the characteristic features of the standardised generational accounting concept on which the computations were based. Section 3 investigates the divergence of the European countries in terms of long-run fiscal sustainability, and attempts to work out the fundamental forces behind this outcome. Section 4 focuses on the long-term state of fiscal policy in Germany and the UK. This seems instructive, since the two states run markedly contrasted public pension systems. Counterfactual experiments are used to assess the potential for more balanced fiscal policy. Section 5 concludes the paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Bonin, Holger & Raffelhüschen, Bernd, 1999. "Public finances in the European Union: Is convergence sustainable?," Discussion Papers 77, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Institut für Finanzwissenschaft.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:alufin:77
    DOI: 10.6094/UNIFR/13492
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/56412/1/689264577.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.6094/UNIFR/13492?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Juergen Jerger & Jochen Michaelis, 1997. "On the Employment Effect of Manning Rules," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 153(3), pages 545-545, September.
    2. Robert Haveman, 1994. "Should Generational Accounts Replace Public Budgets and Deficits?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 95-111, Winter.
    3. Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Willi Leibfritz, 1999. "From Deficit Delusion to the Fiscal Balance Rule: Looking for an Economically Meaningful Way to Assess Fiscal Policy," NBER Chapters, in: Generational Accounting around the World, pages 9-30, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Alan J. Auerbach & Jagadeesh Gokhale & Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 1991. "Generational Accounts: A Meaningful Alternative to Deficit Accounting," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 55-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. repec:bla:scandj:v:94:y:1992:i:2:p:303-18 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Hannes Rehm, 2006. "New Approaches to a Fiscally-Oriented Debt Management Strategy: Objectives, Instruments, and Risks," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 61(4), pages 587-608, February.

    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. Jagadeesh Gokhale & Bernd Raffelhuschen & Jan Walliser, 1994. "The burden of German unification: a generational accounting approach," Working Papers (Old Series) 9412, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    2. Boll, Stephan, 1996. "Intergenerative Verteilungseffekte öffentlicher Haushalte: Theoretische Konzepte und empirischer Befund für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 1996,06, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    3. Shimasawa, Manabu & Oguro, Kazumasa & Masujima, Minoru, 2014. "Population Aging, Policy Reforms, and Lifetime Net Tax Rate in Japan: A Generational Accounting Approach," CIS Discussion paper series 625, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    4. Boll, Stephan, 1996. "Intergenerational redistribution through the public sector: Methodology of generational accounting and its empirical application to Germany," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 1996,06e, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    5. Buiter, Willem H., 1996. "Aspects of Fiscal Performance in some Transition Economies under Fund-supported Programs," CEPR Discussion Papers 1535, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Volker Meier & Martin Werding, 2010. "Ageing and the welfare state: securing sustainability," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 26(4), pages 655-673, Winter.
    7. Martin Larch & João Nogueira Martins, 2007. "Fiscal indicators - Proceedings of the the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs Workshop held on 22 September 2006 in Brussels," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 297, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    8. Kotlikoff, Laurence J., 2002. "Generational policy," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 27, pages 1873-1932, Elsevier.
    9. Siebert, Horst, 1997. "Pay-as-you-go versus capital funded pension systems: the issues," Kiel Working Papers 816, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    10. Bassetto, Marco & Kocherlakota, Narayana, 2004. "On the irrelevance of government debt when taxes are distortionary," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 299-304, March.
    11. Timothy C. Irwin, 2015. "Defining The Government'S Debt And Deficit," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 711-732, September.
    12. James Banks & Carl Emmerson, 2000. "Public and private pension spending: principles, practice and the need for reform," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 21(1), pages 1-63, March.
    13. Gemma Abío & Eduard Berenguer & Holger Bonin & Joan Gil & Concepció Patxot, 2003. "Is the deficit under control? A generational accounting perspective on fiscal policy and labour market trends in Spain," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 27(2), pages 309-341, May.
    14. Leon Bettendorf & A. Horst & N. Draper & C. Ewijk & R. Mooij & H. Rele, 2011. "Ageing and the Conflict of Interest Between Generations," De Economist, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 257-278, September.
    15. Robert Haveman, 1994. "Should Generational Accounts Replace Public Budgets and Deficits?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 95-111, Winter.
    16. Westerhout, Ed, 2022. "30 Years of Generational Accounting : A Critical Review," Discussion Paper 2022-021, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    17. Alesina, A. & Passalacqua, A., 2016. "The Political Economy of Government Debt," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 2599-2651, Elsevier.
    18. Bonin, Holger, 2001. "Fiskalische Effekte der Zuwanderung nach Deutschland - Eine Generationenbilanz," IZA Discussion Papers 305, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Koch, Daniel, 2011. "Wirksame Begrenzung von Staatsverschuldung auf europäischer Ebene," Discussion Paper Series 114, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Chair of Economic Order and Social Policy.
    20. Hsieh, Kevin Yu-Ching & Tung, An-Chi, 2016. "Taiwan’s National Pension Program: A remedy for rapid population aging?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 52-66.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sustainable Public Finances; Generational Accounting; European Union;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions

    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:zbw:alufin:77. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iffrede.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.