נאום בכנס ה- Euro - Mediterranean שאורגן ה- ECB בתאריך ה- 27.11.06 -דרך החתחתים לעבר קונסולידציה הפיסקאלית: מהו תפקידם של החוקים הפיסקאליים ? (באנגלית)

Introduction
In this paper we examine fiscal policy performance in Israel since the early 1990s. During this period fiscal policy was based on a variety of fiscal rules in the form of constraints on central government budget variables, particularly the deficit.
Only limited progress was made towards reducing the fiscal deficit during most of the period under review, which makes a prima facie case that the rules were not particularly effective in supporting fiscal consolidation. However, experience after the 2003 shift towards rules focusing on the growth of expenditure tentatively suggests that this type of rule may be a more effective constraint on fiscal policy.

We start in Section 2 by presenting a brief historical background of macroeconomic developments before and after the 1985 stabilization program and then in Section 3 review the evolution of the main fiscal aggregates since 1990. In Section 4 we discuss the analytic arguments in favor of fiscal rules rather than discretion, and in Section 5 examine the various fiscal rules adopted in Israel since 1991. In Section 6 we discuss the performance of the cyclically-adjusted deficit under these rules, and some of their benefits and shortcomings. Tentative conclusions are presented in Section 7.

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