Description

The Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact attempt to define the conditions of sound public finances which are necessary conditions for the success of European Monetary Union, setting quantitative limits to deficit and debt in EU countries. The centralisation of monetary policy and the impossibility of using exchange rates as a policy instrument make fiscal policy all the more important. Indeed, fiscal policy together with structural policy becomes the main instrument of national economic policy. This book considers, at an analytical level, how the EMU countries can manage their fiscal policy within constraints. Focusing on Stability and Growth Pact and the Golden Rule, the analysis approaches the question from three angles: the ways the budget constraint can also be considered as a solvency constraint, the desirability of fiscal constraints in a monetary union and the effect of such constraints on capital accumulation and public investment.