scholarly journals Impact of Governments’ Fiscal Behaviors on Public Finance Sustainability: A Comparative Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3739
Author(s):  
Mihaela Onofrei ◽  
Tudorel Toader ◽  
Anca Florentina Vatamanu ◽  
Florin Oprea

The aim of this research is to highlight the specificity of fiscal sustainability in some developing EU countries by analyzing the implications of fiscal rules on governments’ fiscal behaviors. We employ a panel data analysis to evaluate developing EU countries for the period 2000–2014 and we investigate the status of convergence of fiscal responsibility coordinates by computing the convergence score of fiscal responsibility. The research is based on interdisciplinary coordinates and helps to consolidate judgments from both legal and financial perspectives, making a contribution to the literature that investigates the relationship between the legal framework related to government decision-making and public finance sustainability. The choice of the study sample in relation to developing EU countries represents a contribution and a point of reference for the literature that investigates the sustainability of developing EU countries and highlights the importance of fiscal risk management and control mechanisms in enhancing the performance of the public sector and fiscal sustainability. The results suggest that it is important to reinforce the interaction between the legal framework and the institutional one by identifying good practices for designing and operating effective independent fiscal institutions, making them capable not only of advising the government on fiscal policy matters but also of promoting sound fiscal policy and sustainable public finance.

Competitio ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Kovacs

This contribution addresses the question of what are the main constituents of an innovative fiscal policy in the context of sustainability. We apply the concept of sustaining and disruptive innovation to fiscal policy. On the one hand, innovative fiscal policy is able to be sustaining whereby public finance will incrementally improve without leaving its decisive structure. On the other hand, innovative fiscal policy should be disruptive as well in the context of long term sustainability, whereby the structure of public finances can be profoundly restructured as a reaction to future challenges. By using the Finnish recovery in the early 1990s, we can refine our argument about the use and necessity of the mixture of fiscal rules and independent institutions in favour of fiscal sustainability. We also shed light on the key sources of the expansionary consolidation that emerged in the aftermath of the fiscal adjustment in the early 1990s. We emphasise that innovative fiscal policy with a mixture of legislated fiscal rules and independent fiscal anchor is more likely to be associated with sustainability if the economy has weaker growth potential which does not provide enough social trust towards the consolidation efforts of the government. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: E61, E62, Q01


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihaela Onofrei ◽  
Anca Gavriluţă (Vatamanu) ◽  
Ionel Bostan ◽  
Florin Oprea ◽  
Gigel Paraschiv ◽  
...  

The purpose of this study was to analyze fiscal behavior in the European Union countries, to highlight the implications of institutional constraints on healthy fiscal attitudes, and to test the relationship between government decisions, fiscal responsibility instruments, and the sustainability of public finances during the period 2000–2014. By using panel data analysis, we tested the responsiveness of primary balance to government indebtedness, as well as to some determinants of fiscal responsibility, such as the degree of public spending or fiscal rules effectiveness, and we included two different perspectives regarding fiscal rules status. First, we computed a fiscal responsibility index, which measures the applicability of or compliance with the fiscal rules, referring to legal dimensions and administrative and institutional capacity. Second, we established a fiscal responsibility convergence index, which measures the status of the EU Member States regarding the approach of numerical rules. The empirical findings indicate that fiscal authorities do not act to the existing stock of public debt and highlights a negative response of budget balances to the stock of outstanding debt. Fiscal position improves when the index of fiscal responsibility is involved and countries become more sustainable when they are related to the entire level of fiscal governance, with respect to legal framework, institutional and administrative capacity, but at the debt ratio threshold of over 90%, the effect of the overall fiscal rule comes out as less relevant for the improvement of the primary balance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-127
Author(s):  
S. N. Alpysbayeva ◽  
S. Zh. Shuneyev ◽  
N. N. Zhanakova ◽  
K. Beisengazin

The purpose of the study is to substantiate the potential of using the results of modeling potential GDP and estimating the output gap to comply with fiscal rules that are adequate for the corresponding economic cycle of the economy of Kazakhstan. The methods of economic, statistical, graphical, system, functional analysis, economic and mathematical modeling are applied. To achieve this goal, the analysis of Kazakhstan’s fiscal stability was carried out based on the assessment of Kazakhstan’s potential GDP and the calculation of output gaps, which were carried out based on the dynamic series method of the reported real GDP in 2005 prices for 1991-2019 using the Hodrick-Prescott filter (CP) using the EViews 10 econometric package. The current mechanism for using the output gap indicator in Kazakhstan’s fiscal policy does not have sufficient flexibility. For a timely response of the budget system to changes in the economic situation in the country or abroad, considering the output gap, it is important to introduce an automatic adjustment system that can eliminate contradictions and inconsistencies when making macroeconomic policy decisions by the main regulator and the government of the country. To do this, there is a need to revise the existing fiscal policy based on building a system of new budget rules on countercyclical principles. The proposed alternative fiscal model with the introduction of the rule on the structural balance of the budget is aimed at ensuring long-term fiscal stability, which does not allow for a pro-cyclical policy.


Risks ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Mihaela Tofan ◽  
Mihaela Onofrei ◽  
Anca-Florentina Vatamanu

This paper aims at studying the legal aspects of the European Union (EU)’s fiscal policy, analyzing the statute of fiscal responsibility legal framework, the different measures undertaken in the last years with respect to European trends in fiscal governance and their implications for challenges in public finance sustainability. The research started from the presupposition that there is a lack of mechanisms capable of enforcing the area of public finance sustainability, and the implication of the events that created the economic conjuncture of recent years reveals that the solidity of public finances has reached an impasse and needs to be enhanced. The analyzed documents from the area of fiscal responsibility show formal respect for the legislative framework aimed at consolidating public finance sustainability and accentuate the need to use fiscal laws, independent institutions and mechanisms that put constraints on policymakers and determine them to spend more efficiently, invest more wisely, and obtain better results regarding public finance sustainability. We conclude that future policymaking processes need to consider the consolidation of independent fiscal institutions founded by Fiscal Responsibility Law framework, completed by fiscal rules and, therefore, need to redesign the fiscal risk management process.


Equilibrium ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 623-642
Author(s):  
Agata Szymańska

Research background: The latest economic and financial crisis has seriously injured European Union Member States, affecting the condition of their public finances. In the face of the crisis, the EU made a special effort to increase the effectiveness of national fiscal frameworks, e.g. by improving the compliance with legislation. The post 2009 reforms were aimed at providing a solid economic foundation for the national fiscal frameworks, especially in the high-debt euro area countries. Purpose of the article: The goal of this research is twofold. Firstly, it aims to provide an outline of the national fiscal governance in the EU. Secondly, the paper analyzes the changes in the core measures of fiscal governance in the EU between the crisis period and the year 2016 (due to the latest available data) and investigates the similarities in the progress made by the 28 EU countries in restoring balance in public finance. Methods: To achieve the goal, the literature review and the analysis of core elements of national fiscal frameworks are provided. In the empirical section the grouping method for all 28 EU countries based on the Ward's agglomerative hierarchical clustering method is employed. The study uses data derived from the AMECO database (in the case of fiscal data) and the European Commission thematic data for quality indexes of particular elements of fiscal governance (numerical fiscal rules, medium-term budgetary frameworks and independent fiscal institutions). Findings & Value added: This paper contributes to the literature by, on the one hand, attempting to analyze changes in main fiscal governance measures and, on the other hand, by assessing their link with public finance through employment of the agglomerative clustering method. Based on the results, the conclusion about the importance of the improvement in fiscal frameworks is provided. The analysis shows that countries with better national fiscal framework achieved better results in public finances regardless the macroeconomic conditions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Daniela Vodă ◽  
Gabriela Dobrotă ◽  
Loredana Andreea Cristea ◽  
Bianca Ciocanea

At both macroeconomic and national level, in recent decades, European tax policies have shown a particular interest in addressing the spectrum of risk issues in terms of maturing the business environment and the lack of sustainable development of the economy. In Romania there has been a significant increase in public debt, which is increasingly threatening fiscal sustainability. This is due to fiscal rules that restrict the applicability of fiscal policy to balancing the national economy. However, fiscal policy did not act in the direction of economic recovery during the crisis that started in the last quarter of 2008, which had a negative impact on the Romanian business environment. Objectively, fiscal policy should manifest itself as a general framework of the economy on the basis of which to develop fiscal rules that act in the direction of sustainable development of the business environment and implicitly, of socio-economic life. The research carried out referred to identify how fiscal rules in Romania restrict the application of fiscal policy as well as whether there is an explicit concordance between them. The research methodology aimed to use the ARDL model to apply the Granger causality test, using quarterly data for a set of four indicators, being identified that Romanian fiscal rules restrict fiscal policy. The achieved results highlighted the fact that fiscal rules restrict fiscal policy, being identified a long-run relationship between the analyzed variables and implicitly, a state of instability of the fiscal system in Romania. Keywords: fiscal policy, autoregressive distributed-lagged model, Granger causality test.


Ekonomista ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maciej WYSOCKI ◽  
Cezary WÓJCIK

In 2016–2019 Poland experienced a major social and fiscal policy shift: new government decreased the statutory retirement age and launched several new social programs, including the sweeping Family 500+ program under which social expenditure on family and children support increased suddenly from 1.5% to nearly 3% of GDP. Moreover, VAT gap reduction policies have been implemented swiftly. The new policy move became highly controversial. Many economists argued that overall it would lead to a significant deterioration of long-term fiscal sustainability. The government argued in turn that the new program was well financed by a complementary policy of VAT gap reduction and saw no risk to country’s fiscal sustainability. This paper provides one of the first evidence of the adverse effect of the policy shift on long-term fiscal sustainability. The analysis reveals that fiscal sustainability parameters have deteriorated significantly after 2016. Overall, the estimations presented in the paper show that in the period of 2016–2019 fiscal sustainability parameters may have been the lowest since Poland joined the EU in 2004. While these results should be treated with caution as they draw on very recent time series, the deterioration of Poland’s fiscal sustainability raises a pertinent policy question related to country’s capacity to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular in terms of the ability to use standard and non-standard fiscal policy instruments and monetary policy tools in response to the shock.


2013 ◽  
Vol 04 (03) ◽  
pp. 1350017 ◽  
Author(s):  
IAN LIENERT

Can fiscal transparency, accountability and macro-fiscal stabilization be imposed by adopting a fiscal responsibility law (FRL)? Skeptics argue that law is impotent or that the existing legal framework for the budget system suffices. In Europe, supranational fiscal rules were previously seen to be adequate. After reviewing the experience with FRLs around the world, this paper concludes that FRLs enhance fiscal transparency and accountability. However, the adoption of a FRL for attaining fiscal stability goals succeeds only if there is strong political commitment to fiscal discipline. Also, the inclusion of quantitative fiscal rules in FRLs is a high-risk undertaking.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-200
Author(s):  
Csaba Lentner ◽  
Vitéz Nagy

The global financial and economic crisis of 2007 and 2008 entailed a sharp deterioration of fiscal positions worldwide; however, fiscal rules soon tightened up in different countries, and parallelly, budgetary discipline improved. A reconsideration of the fiscal policy was necessary as a sovereign debt crisis evolved as a result of the world economic crisis in several countries of the European Union and the eurozone. The study starts at the government debt map of the old member states of the European Union, to which the Hungarian financial positions outside the eurozone are compared. Then, the components of the new Hungarian public finance regulation, major measures, which resulted in an improvement in line with eurozone positions, are presented in full detail. Our study seeks to prove that because of the Hungarian public finance reforms, the fiscal course has also improved, fitting the trends of developed member states of the EU. Although earlier researches have highlighted that it was not only modified fiscal policies that contributed to the post-crisis debt consolidation process in the countries of the eurozone but also the combined effect of the real interest rate and real growth policy. The uniqueness of the study lies in the regulatory instruments, with which the country – positioned in a socialist planned economy, then demonstrating a weak fiscal discipline and sunk in a fiscal crisis even before the global economic crisis of 2007 and 2008 – has consolidated its positions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 47-59
Author(s):  
Vasyl KUDRYASHOV ◽  

The issue of using fiscal rules in budget policy implementation is covered (namely, one of the innovative mechanisms aimed at limiting fiscal imbalances and enhancing positive impacts on economic and social development). An analysis of approaches to determining the content of fiscal rules is carried out. The content’s interpretation is proposed, which reflects not only restrictive, but also corrective functions. The IMF recommendations on application of fiscal rules and supranational regulation of budget policy in the framework of integration associations, as well as their positive and negative impact on the development of Member States, were considered. It is noted that fiscal rules should be sufficiently balanced and flexible for their use in public administration. In order to increase the effectiveness of fiscal rules, significant changes have been made in the EU regarding their composition over the past years. The authors reveal the main objectives of application of fiscal rules, as well as their importance in increasing the budgetary responsibility of the government, particularly, to ensure budgetary discipline, as well as the effectiveness of spending funds. Mechanisms for adjusting the fiscal policies that are introduced in framework of fiscal rules are outlined. Particular attention is paid to measures to continue fiscal consolidation, as well as to support economic growth and financial stability. It is concluded that strengthening rigidity of fiscal rules at the supranational level in the EU hampered flexibility in managing budget resources, hence they require reform. With the use of fiscal rules, the issues of amending the institutional structure of public finance management and deepening the transparency of budget operations have been actualized. It is noted that changes to application of fiscal rules are important enough for Ukraine. The rules used in our state are insufficient and do not fully solve the tasks assigned to them. They require expansion and improvement, as well as introduction of effective implementation mechanisms. To improve the effectiveness of fiscal policy in Ukraine, one should take into account the experience of foreign countries, as well as develop and implement more detailed and flexible fiscal rules.


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