Year: 2012
Type: preprint
Abstract: The comparative study of debt and fiscal consolidation has acquired a new focus in the wake of the global financial crisis. This leads us to re-evaluate the literature on fiscal consolidation that flourished during the 1980s and 1990s. The conventional approach segments episodes of fiscal change into discrete observations. We argue that this misses the dynamic features of government strategy, especially in the choices made\nbetween expenditure-based and revenue-based fiscal consolidation strategies. We\npropose a focus on pathways rather than episodes of adjustment, to recapture\nwhat Pierson terms 'politics in time'. A case-study approach facilitates\nanalysis of complex causality that includes the structures of interest\nintermediation, the role of ideas in shaping the set of feasible policy choices,\nand the situation of national economies in the international political economy.\nWe support our argument with qualitative data based on two case studies,\nIreland and Greece, and with additional paired comparisons of Ireland with\nBritain, and Greece with Spain.
Institution: University College Dublin
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W42852479