{"title":"The Expenditure Benchmark: Complex and Unsuitable for Independent Fiscal Institutions.","authors":"Carlos Fonseca Marinheiro","doi":"10.1057/s41294-021-00151-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The expenditure benchmark is an indicator for the evolution of public expenditure introduced in 2011 in the already complex European fiscal rules framework, being a very specific application of an expenditure rule. However, it is a quite complex indicator and not suitable for the use at national level by the Independent Fiscal Institutions-that monitor compliance with national fiscal rules-as it relies on the European Commission's data inputs and judgement not available in real time. This paper argues for more transparency and for a simplification of this indicator to reduce the reliance on non-observable variables. Such improvements are essential as most existing proposals to reform the European Union's fiscal rules aim to use an expenditure rule as the operational fiscal rule, a role the expenditure benchmark as is cannot fulfil.</p>","PeriodicalId":46161,"journal":{"name":"Comparative Economic Studies","volume":"63 3","pages":"411-431"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8237256/pdf/","citationCount":"5","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Comparative Economic Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41294-021-00151-6","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2021/6/28 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 5
Abstract
The expenditure benchmark is an indicator for the evolution of public expenditure introduced in 2011 in the already complex European fiscal rules framework, being a very specific application of an expenditure rule. However, it is a quite complex indicator and not suitable for the use at national level by the Independent Fiscal Institutions-that monitor compliance with national fiscal rules-as it relies on the European Commission's data inputs and judgement not available in real time. This paper argues for more transparency and for a simplification of this indicator to reduce the reliance on non-observable variables. Such improvements are essential as most existing proposals to reform the European Union's fiscal rules aim to use an expenditure rule as the operational fiscal rule, a role the expenditure benchmark as is cannot fulfil.
期刊介绍：
Comparative Economic Studies is a journal of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies (ACES). It aims to publish papers that address several objectives: that provide original political economy analysis from a comparative perspective, that are an accessible source for state-of-the-art comparative economics thinking, that encourage cross-fertilization of ideas, that debate directions for future research in comparative economics, and that can provide materials and insights that are relevant for teaching, public policy debate and the media. Comparative Economic Studies welcome both submissions that are explicitly comparative and case studies of single countries or regions. The journal is interested in papers that investigate how economic systems respond to economic transitions, crises and to structural change, brought about by globalization, demographics, institutions, technology, politics, and the environment. While maintaining its position as an important outlet for work on Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union, the scope of Comparative Economic Studies encompasses other areas as well (European Union, Asia, Latin America, and Africa).
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