• Media type: E-Book; Report
  • Title: The Effects of Fiscal Institutions on Public Finance: A Survey of the Empirical Evidence
  • Contributor: Kirchgässner, Gebhard [Author]
  • imprint: Munich: Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), 2001
  • Language: English
  • Keywords: public expenditure ; H61 ; public debt ; balanced budget ; budgetary procedures ; fiscal federalism ; direct democracy ; H71
  • Origination:
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  • Description: This paper surveys the empirical research on fiscal institutions of the last three decades. The main results are: (i) Constitutional or statutory fiscal limitations have in most cases proved to be effective in cutting down public expenditure, revenue, and debt. (ii) Budgetary proce-dures matter as well. They might be less effective than constitutional or statutory rules, but in a situation where it is impossible to introduce such rules they might present a feasible second-best way to reach fiscal sustainability. (iii) Citizens demand fewer public services and a sounder fiscal policy in systems with direct legislation than in purely parliamentary systems. (iv) There is some evidence that fiscal federalism leads - ceteris paribus - to a smaller size of the government. There are also political institutions which have an impact on the public budg-ets, and there are some interactions between the different institutions.
  • Access State: Open Access