engleski

Government accouting, fiscal rules and public investments

Economic and financial crises has intensified search for tools necessary for attaining fiscal and macroeconomic stability. Fiscal rules have been widely debated tool for coping with potentially reckless government behavior. However, there is no unison agreement on the validity of their usage. Particularly heavy criticism was directed towards EU fiscal rules under the framework of Maastricht treaties and Stability and Growth Pact. It was argued that these rules substantially curbed growth of capital accumulation, and thus, economic growth in EU countries. However, new economic crisis and sudden growth of industrial countries’ debt have reinforced discussions on the needs of more strict government spending constraints and more attention is devoted to negative effects of public debt accumulation. One of the problems is that fiscal rules were not obeyed and sanctions were not exercised on the expense of countries that broke the limits. It became obvious that new fiscal rules are necessary. In addition, there is a lack of thorough research on the effects of government accounting rules build in general framework of fiscal rules. This paper critically analysis fiscal rules applied in practice and provides a normative perspective and answer on question what kind of fiscal rules do we need. The first part of the paper, after introduction, presents a theoretical overview of interconnection of government accounting, fiscal rules and public investment. Second part provides more thorough reflections on the potential effects of government accounting. Third part of the paper, before conclusion, offers some proposals on the construction of better system of general accounting as support for more appropriate fiscal rules.

fiscal rules ; government accounting ; fiscal performance ; public investments ; economic growth ;

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