Towards a more comprehensive assessment of fiscal space

Hoi Wai Jackie Cheng and Ingo Pitterle

Working Papers from United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs

Abstract: The prolonged sluggishness in the world economy since the global financial crisis has led to growing calls for a reorientation of macroeconomic policies toward more supportive fiscal measures. Such calls inevitably invite the question of how much fiscal space governments actually have. This paper provides a systematic review of the most popular definitions and measures of fiscal space. It examines the evolution of fiscal space measures and discusses the pros and cons of each measure. It then outlines several key factors that could help to further strengthen existing approaches and allow a more comprehensive assessment of fiscal space. By illustrating how different measures paint considerably different pictures of an economy’s fiscal space, the paper underscores the need to use a dashboard of indicators.

Keywords: Fiscal space; quantitative measures of fiscal space; debt sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C82 E62 H60 H63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2018-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:une:wpaper:153

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