Fiscal targets. A guide to forecasters?
财政目标能否为预测者提供指引？
Summary We formulate and estimate empirical models for a selection of EU countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland) to show that ex‐ante government (consumption) targets convey useful information about ex‐post fiscal developments, even if the track record of governments meeting their respective targets is low. The use of targets is particularly valuable when there is limited information about its implementation, for example, at the beginning of a fiscal…