Do independent fiscal institutions cause better fiscal outcomes in the European Union?

This paper explores the budgetary implications of the independent fiscal institutions (IFIs) in the European Union (EU). We employ a dynamic panel model for the period 2000–2019 and find that these fiscal watchdogs have a positive and significant influence not only on government budget balance for the EU member states, resulting in smaller government budget deficits, but also on countries’ compliance with fiscal rules, results that hold across alternative fiscal balances. IFIs appear to have a beneficial impact on fiscal performance and compliance with numerical targets in countries with poorly designed fiscal responsibility norms but weaker influence when fiscal rules are less binding (well-designed fiscal rules). The findings remain significant regardless the year of accession to the EU (old vs. new members) or euro-area status (euro-area vs. non-euro-area members). However, we document that IFIs play a larger role in countries that established these monitoring bodies before 2013, indicating that experience matters in IFI performance. Also, our findings show that the influence of IFIs remains if we take into account institutional reforms in which their mandates were extended with different powers and tasks, which has a positive and significant effect on fiscal balances. Moreover, we find that, under the circumstance of systemic and banking crises, these institutions are associated with improved fiscal outcomes, reflecting their increased concern about the path of public finances and their role in reducing budgetary forecasting biases. Our results are robust to a variety of specifications and models, including alternative measures of the government budget balance and after controlling for a set of institutional characteristics and for potential endogeneity in the estimations.     

中国财政政策规则及其体制稳定性分析

本文构建了内生捕捉我国财政政策体制变化的财政规则,并对产出缺口稳定动机和债务稳定动机反应进行了分析。基于马尔科夫转换财政政策反馈规则的实证估计表明,不同体制下,财政赤字与政府债务和产出缺口之间存在不同的政策反应关系;与基于不变参数识别的规则相比,体制转换财政规则能更好地追踪我国财政赤字的时间序列行为。这意味着,假定财政政策体制总是固定的货币政策规则研究以及基于不变财政体制框架VAR度量财政政策冲击高频率效应的实证研究都应慎重。     

THE EFFECTS OF DISCRETIONARY FISCAL POLICY ON MACROECONOMIC AGGREGATES: A REAPPRAISAL

Abstract Fiscal stimuli to recover? A cascade of academic and layman articles debate the effectiveness of fiscal policy in stimulating the economy backed up by different economic models and empirical support. This paper surveys the theoretical predictions and recent empirical vector autoregression evidence on the short‐run effects of discretionary fiscal policy on macroeconomic aggregates.     

ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FISCAL POLICY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF MACROECONOMIC POLICY

This paper demonstrates that fiscal policy is an effective and essential instrument of stabilisation macroeconomic policy. This is particularly so if it is co-ordinated with monetary policy, especially in the current worldwide economic situation.     

ON THE INEFFECTIVENESS OF FISCAL POLICY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF MACROECONOMIC POLICY

Spending depends on the quantity of money. If an increase in the budget deficit is financed by sales of government debt to non-banks, the quantity of money is unchanged and public borrowing 'crowds out' private spending. But – if the government finances its deficit (or buybacks of existing debt) from the banks – the quantity of money, and hence spending and national income increase.     

欧洲主权债务危机的根源、影响及警示意义

自2009年以来,欧洲国家的主权债务问题一直被全球资本市场所关注,以PIIGS五国（希腊、西班牙、葡萄牙、爱尔兰、意大利）为代表的南欧多个国家的债务问题浮出水面,不仅引发了全球金融市场的剧烈波动,同时危及到整个欧元区乃至全球经济的稳定。本篇文章深入分析了欧洲主权债务危机的形成根源及影响,并揭示债务危机对各国的警示意义     

Assessing Ricardian Equivalence

This paper reviews the literature on Ricardian equivalence. This hypothesis may be interpreted as a generalization to the short and the long run of the theories that put no weight on the real effects of public policies on aggregate demand. We argue that Ricardian equivalence relies on both the permanent income hypothesis and the fulfillment of the intertemporal government budget constraint. The theoretical literature emphasizes several reasons for departures from this hypothesis. However, the empirical literature is inconclusive. When Ricardian equivalence is tested in a life–cycle framework the hypothesis is usually rejected, while when the empirical analysis is based on optimizing models, it is usually accepted.     

我国财政可持续性的实证研究——基于1952～2006年数据的时间序列分析

改革开放以来,我国经济得到了快速的发展;与此同时,财政赤字也成为一种经常现象,并导致累积债务迅速增长,从而引起人们对我国财政可持续性的担忧。本文从实证的角度利用协整检验的方法对我国的财政收支进行了研究。研究结果显示,我国的财政在1%的显著性水平是可持续的。这一结果表明:我国的财政不仅是可持续的,而且可持续的显著性水平较高。     

Budget regimes and internal governance: considerations for the sustainability of fiscal policy

In a fiscal policy set-up with Ricardian equivalence and rational expectations, the decision-making of private agents is based on the knowledge that current deficits will be met with future tax increases or spending decreases. This view requires that the government's budget exhibit intertemporal balance, or that fiscal policy be sustainable. This paper examines the extent to which sustainability holds in the light of changes in the institutional structure of the budget process and changes in internal House governance rules. The results indicate that certain aspects of sustainability are related to the underlying institutional structure and governance of the budget process. The authors wish to thank the editors and three anonymous referees for their thoughtful comments and suggestions. All remaining errors remain our own.     

养老金支付缺口：口径、方法与测算分析

基于精算和会计原理,本文对养老金支付缺口的内涵、口径和评估方法做了系统梳理和对比分析,并在不同口径和方法下,对我国城镇基本养老保险社会统筹基金的支付缺口进行了测算,分析了人口、经济和制度因素变动对测算结果的影响。结论表明,尽管在不同评估目的下,养老金支付缺口有不同的评估口径和评估方法,选择不同的精算假设,会得出有差异的评估结果,但在人口老龄化和人口长寿的总体趋势下,我国的养老金支付缺口呈现不断增大的趋势,如果不改革现行制度,养老金的财务可持续性将面临挑战。     

对我国潜在产出、结构预算与财政态势的关联性研究

本文基于新凯恩斯型动态模型的状态空间模型对潜在产出进行估计,并利用估计结果计算出政府财政预算中的结构性成分和周期性成分。通过对周期性预算余额和结构性预算余额的分析发现,我国财政自动稳定器功能较弱,财政收入和支出的周期性波动相对较小;周期性预算余额的变化与经济周期波动相吻合;我国1998年以来的财政态势具有明显的反周期特点,其对于拉动经济增长、减少经济波动起到了重要作用。     

Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth

This paper surveys the literature on fiscal policy and economic growth. We present a unifying framework for the analysis of long run growth implications of government expenditures and revenues. We find that several tax rates and expenditure categories exhibit a direct impact on the growth rate of the economy. In a creative synthesis we have assigned the relevant literature to the twelve introduced policy variables. Due to the equivalence of some policy variables we are left with six degrees of freedom, where we need four to internalize the model's intrinsic externalities, leaving two instruments to conduct short run fiscal policy.     

FDI竞争具有债务融资“挤出效应”吗？

研究目标：考察地方政府FDI竞争是否具有企业债务融资“挤出效应”。研究方法：选取中国上市公司微观面板数据,并运用多元线性回归方程模型。研究发现：地方政府FDI竞争对其辖区内企业的银行借款总额和长期借款具有“挤出效应”,但这种现象仅在市场化进程较低、中西部地区的企业中存在,且当面临FDI债务融资“挤出效应”时企业一般通过扩大商业信用进行替代;进一步分析还发现,政企关联作为对不完善市场机制的一种替代保护机制能够缓解FDI竞争下长期借款“挤出效应”问题;无论是从银行借款总额还是从借款期限结构来看,地方财政赤字强化了FDI竞争下债务融资的“挤出效应”。研究创新：从企业债务融资微观视角揭示了地方FDI竞争对投资“挤出效应”的作用机理,突破了现有“宏中观层面”研究视角与证据。研究价值：填补了宏中观层面投资“挤出效应”的微观形成机理,并对纠偏地方FDI恶性竞争行为具有重要政策启示。     

关于科研事业单位预算管理问题的思考

近年来,随着我国科教兴国战略的高速推进,科研创新作为重点发展内容得到了越来越多的关注.作为国家科研攻关的中坚力量,科研事业单位可使用的研究经费逐年快速增加,但与此同时,也暴露出了现阶段陈旧的科研经费预算管理体系不能有效进行资金管控的缺陷.针对阻碍科研工作更好实施的现实问题,国家财政部陆续出台了一系列加强预算管理改革的政...