Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/152625 
Year of Publication: 
2002
Series/Report no.: 
ECB Working Paper No. 191
Publisher: 
European Central Bank (ECB), Frankfurt a. M.
Abstract: 
This paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of the fiscal costs of financial instability (defined as major asset price changes and including, as extreme cases, financial crises). The study identifies three channels to fiscal accounts: 1) revenue effects on capital gains, asset turnover and consumption tax, 2) bailout costs as asset price declines undermine balance sheets of companies/banks, and 3) second-round effects from asset prices changes via the real economy and via debt service costs. A panel analysis and case studies show that episodes of financial instability increase the variability of fiscal balances. Moreover, fiscal costs are often very large and much larger than assumed in the literature so far with public debt rising by up to 50% of GDP during such episodes. These fiscal effects can also serve as a, so far under-emphasised, rationale for the deficit and debt targets in the EU's Maastricht Treaty and Stability and Growth Pact.
Subjects: 
asset prices
deficits
financial crisis
financial stability
Fiscal policies
JEL: 
H3
H6
E6
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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