Empirica

, Volume 35, Issue 3, pp 313–334 | Cite as

Ricardian fiscal regimes in the European Union

Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

The prevalence of different fiscal regimes is important both for practical policy reasons and to assess fiscal sustainability, notably for European Union countries. The purpose of this article is to assess, with a panel data set, the empirical evidence concerning the existence of Ricardian fiscal regimes in EU-15 countries. The results give support to the Ricardian fiscal regime hypothesis throughout the sample period, and for sub-samples accounting for the dates of the Maastricht Treaty and for the setting-up of the Stability and Growth Pact. Furthermore, electoral budget cycles also seem to play a relevant role in fiscal behaviour.

JEL Classifications

C23 E62 H62 

Keywords

Fiscal regimes European Union Panel data models 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Peter Claeys, Vítor Gaspar, José Marín, Ludger Schuknecht, Jean-Pierre Vidal, Jürgen von Hagen, participants at ECB, and at ISEG/UTL seminars, at the Money Macro and Finance Research Group Meeting, at the LACEA conference, and to an anonymous referee for helpful comments. UECE is supported by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal), financed by ERDF and Portuguese funds.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.European Central Bank, Directorate General EconomicsFrankfurt am MainGermany
  2. 2.Department of EconomicsISEG/TULisbon—Technical University of LisbonLisbonPortugal
  3. 3.UECE—Research Unit on Complexity and EconomicsLisbonPortugal

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