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This paper addresses two main questions: (1) how far do the activities of fiscal councils in the EU countries help promote transparency and accountability in the management of public finances and (2) how could fiscal councils enhance the impact of those activities? The analysis is based on a questionnaire collected in 2016 from fiscal councils in 18 EU countries. The questionnaire looked at how the councils themselves assessed their impact on the management of public finances, and how they communicated their findings to the wider public. The councils see some benefits of their work; and their monitoring of adherence to fiscal rules and legislative regulation, as well as their warnings about excessive government spending, seem to get noticed in the media. This activity informs the public, and may in turn influence politicians ratings, thereby helping to contribute to greater accountability in the management ofpublic finances. The paper consequently argues that fiscal councils may promote fiscal transparency and accountability and proposes several ways to enhance the effectiveness of their influence on media.

The public disclosure of medium-term fiscal plans - \"fiscal guidance\" - represents an increasingly important, yet understudied element of fiscal transparency frameworks. This article introduces a dataset that contains a large set of forecasts on fiscal and economic items issued by all European Union governments over the period 2001-2018. These forecasts are used to build an index of fiscal guidance transparency and to explore its main characteristics and correlates. The analysis reveals that governments are more transparent in their guidance on fiscal flows and macroeconomic aggregates than on liabilities, assets, and exogenous assumptions. In addition, transparency declines in the forecast horizon and in the strength of the governing coalition. Collectively, the results suggest that fiscal guidance transparency may be a sensitive area of policymaking that deserves scholarly attention. Possible uses of the measure of fiscal guidance transparency in research are discussed.

After the Revolution of Dignity (2013–2014), the new Ukrainian government set out a number of reforms, one of which – and a successful one so far – was decentralisation, involving territorial amalgamation and re-allocation of public revenues and outlays in favour of the newly-established amalgamated territorial communities (ATCs). This study aims to analyse whether decentralisation is supported by the realisation of the budget transparency principle. We attempt to fill the gap still existing in the research of public sector transparency in Ukraine, concerning the basic administrative level, hereby being limited to big cities and regions. The authors carried out an assessment of budget transparency in newly-established ATCs in four Ukrainian regions by applying a simplified methodology (‘snapshot assessment’) involving 11 measures that could be easily located on the ATC websites. In order to understand the reasons for a particular level of transparency, a polling of ATC heads was undertaken. The findings of the study demonstrate that the overall budget transparency in the newly established ATCs is rather low and subject to significant interregional variation. We find that the local officials overstate the existing level of budget transparency in their communities and are not proactive in their efforts to raise it. The importance of this article lies in substantiating the need for making budget transparency a priority for local officials, as well as in detailing the activity of the state and the local community in this field

The International Monetary Fund S fourth review of the Fiscal Transparency Code from 2014 sets out the principle of participation according to which the government must provide citizens with a brief, simple and easily understandable overview of the implications of all budgetary measures and with an opportunity to participate in the budgetary decision-making process. The Fiscal Transparency Code must be implemented in Croatia, which is an IMF member state, so this paper uses an interdisciplinary approach to point out the importance and economic effects of public participation in the budgetary process, identify the normative mechanisms of public participation in the budgetary process, and look into what they comprise of and whether they can help in achieving \"participation in budgetary decisionmaking\", as provided for by point 2.3.3. of the Code in Croatia. It is assumed that the Croatian legal system provides various normative mechanisms of public participation in the budgetary process, which enables the implementation of the participation principle set out in the Code. These mechanisms are, however, not specific to the budgetary process itself, but rather represent general normative mechanisms of public participation, which apply in the legislative process as well.

Only a few empirical studies have analyzed the relationship between fiscal multipliers and the underlying state of the economy. This paper investigates this link on a country-by-country basis for the G7 economies (excluding Italy). Our results show that fiscal multipliers differ across countries, calling for a tailored use of fiscal policy. Moreover, the position in the business cycle affects the impact of fiscal policy on output: on average, government spending, and revenue multipliers tend to be larger in downturns than in expansions. This asymmetry has implications for the choice between an upfront fiscal adjustment versus a more gradual approach.

Fiscal vulnerability describes a situatuion where a government is exposed to the possibility of failure to meet its aggregate fiscal policy objectives. The suggested framework for assessing vulnerability highlights four macro-fiscal aspects of vulnerability: incorrect specification of the initial fiscal position; sensitivity of short-term fiscal outcomes to risk; threats to longer-term fiscal sustainability; and structural or institutional weaknesses affecting the design and implementation of fiscal policy. Fiscal vulnerability indicators are suggested.

– The aim of the article is to identify dysfunctional phenomena (implementation of specific mechanisms/solutions and actions taken), generating increased opacity and limit the responsibility/accountability of public finance in Poland, exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. – descriptive analysis, comparative analysis and financial analysis methods were used. – fiscal transparency and accountability in Poland is limited by: the marginalisation of the role of the state budget, the loosening of the stabilising expenditure rule, the creation of financial mechanisms based on special funds fed by repayable financing sources for the implementation of state tasks, inter alia, in the fight against the effects of the COVID-19 crisis, the use of national and EU methodologies for calculating the deficit and debt of the public sector in order to conceal part of them, the lack of a consolidated financial statement of the public finance sector.

This paper examines the case for establishing an Independent Fiscal Council in Mauritius as a mechanism to enhance fiscal governance, transparency, and accountability. Despite Mauritius’s reputation as a well-governed small island economy, recurring challenges, including rising public debt-to-GDP ratios (which reached 87% in 2021), persistent budget deficits, instances of public fund misappropriation, and weaknesses in fiscal oversight, indicate the need for institutional reform. Using a mixed-methods approach combining doctrinal legal analysis with comparative research, this study examines primary sources, including legislation and official reports, alongside secondary literature on fiscal governance. The research conducts a comparative analysis of fiscal council frameworks in selected jurisdictions (UK, New Zealand, Brazil, India, Australia, Hungary, Argentina, Luxembourg, and Singapore), drawing lessons applicable to the Mauritian context. The findings demonstrate that Mauritius’s current fiscal governance framework lacks robust independent oversight mechanisms, contributing to fiscal challenges and accountability deficits. The paper proposes a comprehensive model for a Mauritian Fiscal Council, including its legal foundation, institutional design, powers, functions, and relationship with existing institutions, while providing a detailed implementation roadmap addressing the unique political economy challenges facing Mauritius.

Corporate green development (GD) is critical for realizing China’s double carbon targets, and government environmental auditing is an essential path for supervising the GD behavior of enterprises. However, the effect of government environmental auditing on corporate GD has not been thoroughly investigated, particularly through the path of improving fiscal transparency. This study takes Chinese A-share listed companies in heavily polluting industries from 2011 to 2022 as the sample and uses statistical models to empirically test the effects. The results indicate that government environmental auditing can significantly facilitate corporate GD by improving fiscal transparency. Government auditing functions to checking and preventing environmental pollution issues can promote enterprises’ GD. The function of preventing pollution issues has the most substantial promotion effect. The analysis of regional heterogeneity indicates that government environmental auditing in the western region has the strongest effect. The conclusion of this study provides theoretical support and guidance for strengthening government environmental auditing, improving government fiscal transparency, and promoting the GD of enterprises.