Mykola Pasichnyi

The challenges of economic globalization, recession, and the essential changes in market conditions, as well as the financial institutionalization, determine the expediency of the new studies to explore the impact of fiscal instruments on the dynamics of economic growth and social stability. This paper examines the role of fiscal policy in the economic growth ensuring in advanced and emerging market economies over the period from 2001 to 2015. The research indicates the growing role of the state (in general) and the budget (in particular) in regulation of social and economic processes. Based on the methods of economic regression, the interrelations between government spending and GDP growth in different groups of countries were evaluated. The study emphasized the directions to increase the positive influence of budget policy on economic development for countries with emerging market economies. This can be achieved by harmonization of the tax burden and structure, improving the use of budget funds, conducting structural optimization of budget expenditures, further development of financial and budget institutions, implementation of the fiscal constraints and rules while forming the basic indicators of fiscal policy.

The Great Recession has imposed vital limitations on the policy maker’s ability to react to further economic challenges. In this article, the authors set a purpose to assess the expediency and the size of fiscal consolidation or expansionary measures for countries with emerging markets depending on economic dynamics. The data on the episodes of large changes in fiscal policy, representing both fiscal stimuli and consolidation in Ukraine and in the EU countries with emerging market economies from 2001 to 2017, were evaluated. The authors examined the main reasons of fiscal policy’s volatility and its impact on economic growth. The countries with low and medium level of institutional framework for fiscal policy formulation could face permanent deficit and public debt problem. Episodes of expansionary fiscal adjustments based on government revenues cuts and spending increases were more effective compared with those that were entirely based on spending increases. Empirical investigation showed that successful fiscal consolidation measures obligatory included the government primary spending reduction. In those cases, the budget deficit-to-GDP and public debt-to-GDP ratios were declined. Medium-term priorities to develop the methodical bases of fiscal policy design were justified.

In this article, updated approach to assess the impact of fiscal decentralization on economic development is offered. The relationship between the proper level of fiscal decentralization and economic growth for 27 advanced and emerging economies in Europe from 1992 to 2017 was evaluated using panel data. In the EU members, Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine expenditures decentralization was more essential than revenue decentralization. The vast majority of the counties from Central and Eastern Europe have increased the level of fiscal decentralization since 1992. It was found that revenue decentralization was associated with lower growth rates, while expenditures decentralization could slightly encourage economic development. The overall decentralization indicator adversely affected the growth, but that interconnection was not robust. The empirical investigation showed significant role of demographic structure and sustainability to ensure economic development. The authors propose the statements for the local authorities to develop the methodical bases of the fiscal policy’s design. In the survey, a balanced approach to the tax and public spending policy’s preparation and planning is presented.

The article assessed the treatment effects of targeting inflation regime on the real output and consumer inflation persistence in both advanced and emerging market economies. An empirical analysis is based on data from 35 OECD and 40 emerging countries and covers inflation and non-inflation targets over the period 1990–2017. The results showed that inflation targeting (henceforth – IT) had no significant impact on the GDP per capita growth rate but slightly reduced the output volatility. This study founded out that full-fledged IT had the effect of slowing down consumer inflation and reducing its volatility. Moreover, in the OECD countries, the monetary framework had certain advantages during the Great Recession. The authors argued that in order to maintain price stability in emerging economies, a high level of central bank independence and accountability is required.