Independent Fiscal Councils: Watchdogs or lapdogs?

Contents

Introduction: Can independent fiscal councils be useful?
Roel M.W.J. Beetsma and Xavier Debrun

I Fiscal councils in principle

1 Policy delegation and the Consensus Assignment
Simon Wren-Lewis

2 Fiscal councils in theory: First principles
Carlos Mulas-Granados

3 Fiscal councils and fiscal rules: Complements or substitutes?
Charles Wyplosz

4 Promoting good practices: The OECD Principles and beyond
Joachim Wehner

II Fiscal councils in practice

5 Measuring IFI independence: A first pass using the OECD IFI database  
Lisa von Trapp and Scherie Nicol

6 The effectiveness of fiscal councils: Emerging international evidence
Victor Duarte Lledó

7 Fiscal councils and fiscal transparency
James E. Alt, David Dreyer Lassen

8 Fiscal councils in federal or decentralised countries: Belgium, Germany and Spain
José Luis Escrivá, Eckhard Janeba, and Geert Langenus

9 Fiscal surveillance in the EU: from maze to pyramid?
Ludovit Ódor

III Lessons from experience

10 The UK Office of Budget Responsibility: Mission accomplished? A perspective from a former practitioner
Kevin Page

11 Children of the crisis: Fiscal councils in Portugal, Spain and Ireland
Michal Horvath

12 Homegrown: The Swedish fiscal policy framework
Lars Jonung

13 Some myths about independent fiscal institutions
George Kopits

14 Addressing the communications challenges facing an independent fiscal institution: A view from the Congressional Budget Office
Robert A. Sunshine

IV The way forward

15 The European Fiscal Board: An experiment at the supranational level
Zareh Asatryan and Friedrich Heinemann

16 Fiscal councils: A first step towards fiscal delegation in Europe?
Henrique S. Basso and James Costain

17 Are fiscal councils here to stay?
Jürgen von Hagen