LARCH Martin - Challenges of Sustainable Public Finance (20h)

Sustainable public finances are a pre-condition of effective macroeconomic policymaking. In the EU fiscal policies are set and managed by national governments but coordinated at the supranational level.

This course will teach you the key concepts behind sustainable fiscal policymaking; how it can and is used to impact a country's economy, and how fiscal policies are organised and coordinated in the EU with the goal of ensuring and a smooth functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union. The course will also look at the origins, the evolution and the future of the EU’s fiscal framework.

This course complements and builds on the one by Prof. L. Codogno on European Macroeconomic Policy. It draws on the same mainstream macroeconomic framework to outline key concepts of fiscal policymaking in general and in the EU in particular.

1. Introduction and overview
2. Fiscal policy in mainstream macro models
3. Fiscal policy in practice /political economy
4. Government debt and sustainability
5. Fiscal policy in an open economy
6. Fiscal Policy in the EU (OCA)
7. The EU fiscal framework: institutions and rules
8. Taxation in the EU: governance and outcomes

For more information please consult the ECTS card.