This note presents data on Congressional fiscal policy by party and chamber, using the National Taxpayers Union annual vote index for 1979-2002. NTU scores are presented with and without adjusting for interchamber and intertemporal movements of the policy space over which the scores are calculated. Results indicate that the parties and chambers are much more stable over time, and exhibit a slig...

The fiscal position of many countries is worrying – and getting worse. Should formally independent central bankers be concerned about observed fiscal excesses spilling over to monetary policy and jeopardizing price stability? To provide some insights, this paper tracks the interactions between fiscal and monetary policies in the data across time and space. It makes three main contributions. The...

How is rule of law established? We address this question by exploring the effect of increases in fiscal capacity on the establishment of well-enforced, formal, legal standards in a preindustrial economy. Between 1550 and 1700, there were over 2,000 witch trials in France. Prosecuting a witch required local judges to significantly deviate from formal rules of evidence. Hence, we exploit the sign...

Abstract How large is Australia's fiscal space? Blanchard (2019) shows that as long the real interest rate below growth , a government can sustain positive primary deficit with constant (or even declining) ratio of public debt to GDP. In this article, we explain neutral and reasons for its decline. Then, discuss results companion paper, Domínguez Quiggin (2022), in which quantify space Australi...