Serie: Documentos de Trabajo. 0935.
Autor: Joan Paredes, Diego J. Pedregal and Javier J. Pérez.
Publicado en: Journal of Policy Modeling, 2014, 36, pp. 800-823
Documento completo
Resumen
The analysis of the macroeconomic impact of fiscal policies in the euro area has been
traditionally limited by the absence of quarterly fiscal data. To overcome this problem, we
provide two new databases in this paper. Firstly, we construct a quarterly database of euro
area fiscal variables for the period 1980-2008 for a quite disaggregated set of fiscal
variables; secondly, we present a real-time fiscal database for a subset of fiscal variables,
composed of bi-annual vintages of data for the euro area period (2000-2009). All models are
multivariate, state-space mixed-frequencies models estimated with available national
accounts fiscal data (mostly annual) and, more importantly, monthly and quarterly
information taken from the cash accounts of the governments. We provide not seasonallyand
seasonally-adjusted data. Focusing solely on intra-annual fiscal information for
interpolation purposes allows us to capture genuine intra-annual "fiscal" dynamics in the
data. Thus, we provide fiscal data that avoid some problems likely to appear in studies using
fiscal time series interpolated on the basis of general macroeconomic indicators, namely the
well-known decoupling of tax collection from the evolution of standard macroeconomic
tax bases (revenue windfalls/shortfalls).