Measuring Fiscal Sustainability for Practical Use in Short-Term Policy Making

This study aims to assess the gross domestic debt sustainability of Turkey through construction of a risk index suitable for short-term policy making. Construction of the risk index follows a methodology similar to the Garcia and Rigobon’s Risk Management Approach (2004). However, unlike most fiscal sustainability studies carried out for Turkey, our index is based on a finite time horizon approach and emphasizes the importance of having a forward-looking measure of fiscal dynamics rather than a test based on past behavior. Within this framework, the main contribution of this paper is to introduce the uncertainty and finite horizon approach into the analysis of the fiscal sustainability of Turkey. A vector-autoregression (VAR) model is used primarily to estimate the joint dynamics of the related macro-variables for the 1990:1-2007:9 periods. Then, the simulated fiscal variables are used to construct the risk index. This index is based on a comparison of a target level of the debt ratio with a simulated debt ratio. Results indicate that the fiscal stance of Turkey has a sustainable outlook through the end of 2007:9.Turkey, Fiscal Sustainability, Monte Carlo Simulation, Vector Auto-Regression

The Revision of Regulation 1049/2001: Public Access Deadlocked for a Decade

Regulation 1049/2001 on access to Commission, European Parliament and Council documents was due to be revised a decade ago. The revision process started with a proposal by the Commission in 2008. However, the negative response of the European Parliament signalled what came to be deadlocked process. This chapter aims to unearth the reasons underlying this deadlock by comparing the proposal of the Commission and the resolution adopted by the European Parliament in response to it. The resulting differences in both institutions’ positions are going to be used to clarify their underlying motives for rejecting each other’s proposals. The ultimate objective of this chapter is thus to shed light on the Commission and the European Parliament’s attitudes towards transparency and the right to public access to documents within the European Union

Measuring Fiscal Sustainability for Practical Use in Short-Term Policy Making

This study aims to assess the gross domestic debt sustainability of Turkey through construction of a risk index suitable for short-term policy making. Construction of the risk index follows a methodology similar to the Garcia and Rigobons Risk Management Approach (2004). However, unlike most fiscal sustainability studies carried out for Turkey, our index is based on a finite time horizon approach and emphasizes the importance of having a forward-looking measure of fiscal dynamics rather than a test based on past behavior. Within this framework, the main contribution of this paper is to introduce the uncertainty and finite horizon approach into the analysis of the fiscal sustainability of Turkey. A vector-autoregression (VAR) model is used primarily to estimate the joint dynamics of the related macro-variables for the 1990:1-2007:9 periods. Then, the simulated fiscal variables are used to construct the risk index. This index is based on a comparison of a target level of the debt ratio with a simulated debt ratio. Results indicate that the fiscal stance of Turkey has a sustainable outlook through the end of 2007:9