The Working Group on Fiscal Policy is a new NISPAcee WG which responds to two needs:

1) To address the current issues related to the sizable expenditure cuts undertaken by most governments in response to the economic crisis and to discuss their impacts on allocation effectiveness, income redistribution and economic stabilisation.

2) To create a niche within the framework of NISPAcee for researchers dealing with fiscal policy and public finance and economics to present, discuss and develop their research.

BACKGROUND

As a result of the economic crisis, we now see a significant deterioration in public finances in most of the transition countries and the subsequent efforts of their governments with regard to fiscal adjustment.

Governments are undertaking various tax and expenditure measures which, on the one hand, lead to a decrease in the budget deficit and public debt but, on the other hand, have significant allocation, redistribution and stabilisation impacts.

Public expenditure policies affect economic growth through a number of channels. Previous research on the relationship between public expenditure and economic growth is inconclusive; however, policymakers need to be made aware of the probable impacts of their decisions.

The main objective of the proposed research is to evaluate the impact of the dynamics and composition of public expenditure on economic growth within the NISPAcee countries.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The working group on fiscal policy is a newly established working group which aims

1) to address the current issues related to the sizable expenditure cuts undertaken by most governments in response to the economic crisis and to discuss their impacts on allocation effectiveness, income redistribution and economic stabilisation, and

2) to create a niche within the framework of NISPAcee for researchers dealing with fiscal policy and public finance and economics to present, discuss and develop their research.

Initially, this working group will be a two-year project whose main objective will be to evaluate the impact of the dynamics and composition of public expenditures on economic growth in NISPAcee member countries.

The research will cover a two-year period and the approach to this will differ during each of the two years. The first year will be open and the second year, structured. The first year’s expected outcomes will be a clearly defined research question and methodology for the following year. For the second year, a collection of high quality papers will be selected, which can then be published as an edited volume.

Scholars who are active in the area of fiscal policy and public finance and economics who are interested in the development of the Working Group on Fiscal Policy are invited to submit a paper which will either contribute to the discussion on public expenditure and economic growth, or deal with the allocation or redistribution impacts of central government measures responding to the economic crisis.

This extremely broad topic allows for the collection of a wide range of issues, research questions, methodological approaches and ideas, which the working group will use as a starting point for the development of a well-structured call for papers and research protocol for the following year.

The paper selection will be based on submitted abstracts, which have to clearly define objectives and research questions (i.e. what the researcher wishes to find) and to carefully describe the research design and methods (i.e. what the researcher will actually do). The papers should demonstrate a very good knowledge of related literature in both the local language and in English and at least basic statistical analysis should be used.