Fiscal and other rules in EU economic governance: helpful, largely irrelevant or unenforceable?

Iain Begg

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: EU Member States, particularly in the euro area, have been pushed to adopt more extensive and intrusive fiscal rules, but,what is the evidence that the rules are succeeding?. The EU level Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) has been – and remains – the most visible rule-book, but it has been complemented by a profusion of national rules and by new provisions on other sources of macroeconomic imbalance. Much of the analysis of rules has concentrated on their technical merits, but tends to neglect the political economy of compliance. This paper examines the latter looking at compliance with fiscal rules at EU and Member State levels, and at the rules-based mechanisms for curbing other macroeconomic imbalances. It concludes that politically driven implementation and enforcement shortcomings have been given too little attention, putting at risk the integrity and effectiveness of the rules.

Keywords: Fiscal rules; European economic governance; Macroeconomic imbalances; Political economy of compliance; Fiscal councils in Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E61 F42 H11 H61 H77 H81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-02-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-mac and nep-pbe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in National Institute Economic Review, 1, February, 2017, 239(1), pp. R3-R13. ISSN: 0027-9501

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:68915

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