IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/niesru/v217y2011i1pr19-r30.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fiscal Discipline: Rules Rather Than Institutions

Author

Listed:
  • Charles Wyplosz

    (The Graduate Institute, Geneva, and CEPR, charles.wyplosz@graduateinstitute.ch)

Abstract

The lack of fiscal discipline is a natural and pervasive implication of the perceived separation between the benefits from public spending and the taxes that individuals and interest groups receive and pay, respectively. The implication is that budget preparation, decision and execution must be constrained. The challenge is that the policymakers who need to be constrained are those who must decide the constraints. Two broad classes of solutions are possible: institutions that shape the budgetary process and quantitative rules that set limits. The mounting experience with both institutions and rules is disappointing, for reasons that are often complementary. Examining the reasons for this state of affairs, this article argues that institutions and rules ought to be combined and associated with advisory fiscal councils.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles Wyplosz, 2011. "Fiscal Discipline: Rules Rather Than Institutions," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 217(1), pages 19-30, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:niesru:v:217:y:2011:i:1:p:r19-r30
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ner.sagepub.com/content/217/1/R19.abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:niesru:v:217:y:2011:i:1:p:r19-r30. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/niesruk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.