Cover

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Contributors

INTRODUCTION

1 Fiscal Politics

PART I: ELECTIONS, IDEOLOGY, AND POLITICAL FRAGMENTATION

2 Governments and Promised Fiscal Consolidations: Do They Mean What They Say?

3 Fiscal Policy over the Election Cycle in Low-Income Countries

4 Economic and Political Determinants of Tax Policies in OECD Countries

5 Now or Later? The Political Economy of Public Investment in Democracies

6 Do Elections Affect the Wage Bill?

7 Energy Subsidies and Public Social Spending: Theory and Evidence

8 It’s Politics, Stupid! Political Constraints Determine Governments’ Reactions to the Great Recession

9 Fragmented Politics and Public Debt

PART II: INSTITUTIONS, RULES, AND FISCAL COUNCILS

10 Political Institutions, State Building, and Tax Capacity: Crossing the Tipping Point

11 Fiscal Discipline and Exchange Rates: Does Politics Matter?

12 Expenditure Rules: Effective Tools for Sound Fiscal Policy?

13 Fiscal Rules to Tame the Political Budget Cycle: Evidence from Italian Municipalities

14 On the Determinants of Fiscal Noncompliance: An Empirical Analysis of Spanish Regions

15 Budget Institutions in Low-Income Countries

16 Fiscal Watchdogs and Sound Fiscal Policy: Is the Barking Loud Enough to Tame Politicians?

PART III: SUPRANATIONAL FISCAL POLITICS

17 The Making of a Continental Financial System: Lessons for Europe from Early American History

18 Fiscal Politics in the Euro Area

19 IMF Conditionality and Revenue Performance

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y