Understanding Fiscal Space

By P. Heller. IMF Policy Discussion Papers, 2005

339 citations recorded by the source corpus.

With new initiatives to provide low income countries with external assistance in support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), donors and NGOs are seeking to understand whether "fiscal space" can be provided in the context of IMF-supported programs to support these initiatives. This paper defines the concept of fiscal space and its link to fiscal sustainability, describes alternative ways in which fiscal space can be created, and notes how the IMF can support appropriate efforts to create fiscal space. The paper underscores that the issues that arise in creating fiscal space are not novel, but have always confronted governments in judging whether there is scope for additional expenditure.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Political Science and International Relations

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/48430c06e1c8bf4fa3d4f8b6eae41ece5a108243

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Citations in the corpus

Public Capital and Growth (2010, background): “Since the late 1990s, this has led to calls to correct the bias against public investment, most importantly in infrastructure, and create “fiscal space” for funding such investment (Heller, 2005).2 Underlying this premise is the belief that public investment is productive.”
Unpacking the Public Private Partnership Revival (2018, background): “Ultimately, the ability of a government to finance public investment depends on its fiscal space, this is its ability to raise revenue and rely on debt instruments or external grants (see Heller, 2005; Weeks & McKinley, 2007).”
A Cross-Country Database of Fiscal Space (2017, neutral): “…fiscal space simply as the budgetary room to create and allocate funding for a certain purpose, such as smoothing the business cycle, or undertaking growthenhancing investment projects, without threatening liquidity and sustainability of a sovereign’s financial position (Heller 2005; Ley 2009).”