TY  - BOOK
AU  - Heimberger,Philipp
AU  - Matzner,Anna
TI  - Macroeconomic and distributional effects of fiscal consolidation measures in EU countries
T2  - wiiw Working Papers
PY  - 2026///
CY  - Wien
PB  - Wiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche (wiiw)
KW  - Fiscal consolidation
KW  - austerity
KW  - growth
KW  - unemployment
KW  - income inequality
KW  - European Union
KW  - Austria
KW  - Belgium
KW  - Denmark
KW  - Finland
KW  - France
KW  - Germany
KW  - Ireland
KW  - Italy
KW  - Netherlands
KW  - Portugal
KW  - Spain
KW  - Sweden
N2  - We provide new evidence on the effects of fiscal consolidation measures on output, unemployment, income inequality and consumer price inflation. To identify causal impacts, we use a narrative-based instrumental variable strategy drawing on historical records of exogenous fiscal changes motivated by deficit reduction, covering 12 EU countries from 1980 to 2020. Our results for the short to medium run show that fiscal consolidations (a) lower real output; (b) raise the unemployment rate; (c) increase income inequality; and d) reduce consumer price inflation. Contractionary macroeconomic effects are stronger during recessions than during non-recession periods

UR  - https://wiiw.ac.at/p-7525.html
ER  -