Abstract:
We study the evolution of the response of fiscal policy to monetary policy shocks in the EMU in the light of two important events: the signing of the Maastricht treaty in 1992 and the introduction of the EMU in 1999. Based on impulse responses from a panel VAR, we find that fiscal and monetary policy acted neutrally toward each other before the Maastricht Treaty; fiscal and monetary policy acted as substitutes immediately after the Maastricht Treaty; and fiscal and monetary policy acted as complements after the introduction of the EMU. These results holds for a set of 11 non-EMU countries as well, which indicates that the evolution of the fiscal response to monetary shocks within the EMU has broadly mirrored global developments. One example of such a global development is the global shift toward lower interest rates and tighter fiscal policy during the 1990s.
