Expenditure-based Consolidation: Experiences and Outcomes – Workshop proceedings

Summary:

A proper design of fiscal adjustment is an essential aspect of a successful approach to consolidation. Economists often advocate putting emphasis on expenditure restraint as part of a well-designed consolidation strategy. There is no optimal government size, but the common presumption is that both potential efficiency gains in spending and the opportunity cost of incremental taxation increase more than proportionately with the size of the public sector. In this context, the aim of the workshop, held by DG ECFIN on 20 January 2015, was to discuss theoretical and policy issues associated with expenditure-based consolidations. The workshop was organised in three sessions, Session 1: " Expenditure-based consolidation or tax based consolidation: evidence from a cross-country perspective", session 2: "Interaction between private and public sector in difficult times: impact of uncertain economic environments on consolidations" and session 3 "Structural and institutional reforms in the context of an expenditure-based consolidation". The proceedings display the high quality contributions that were presented in each of these sessions.

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