In the context of recent economic and financial crisis in Europe, questions about the power
of the core executive to control fiscal outcomes are more important than ever. Why are some …

A central explanation of fiscal performance focuses on the structure of the cabinet. However,
the partisan context of cabinet decisions remains under‐explored, the findings are based on …

What explains the variation in countries' propensity to engage in austerity policy? Economic
and political country-level factors are the paramount explanations in the literature …

What are the political effects of fiscal consolidations? Theoretical considerations suggest
that consolidations should reduce the public's support for their governments, but empirical …

In this article, we connect intra-party politics to macro events by asking what types of
ministers are selected in times of fiscal crisis. Drawing on the previous literature we present …

Voters typically observe macroeconomic outcomes in order to evaluate government
performance. However, during crises, when the clarity of economic responsibility is poor and …

The determinants of public spending composition have been studied from three broad
perspectives in the scholarly literature: functional economic pressures, institutional …

The fiscal commons problem is one of the most prominent explanations of excessive
spending and indebtedness in political economics. The more fragmented a government, the …

This article makes two claims: first, it argues that the impact of fiscal austerity varies across
different types of public spending. In particular, we show that discretionary spending (public …

Economic crisis and the resulting need for austerity budgets have divided many governing
parties and coalitions in Europe despite strong party discipline in the legislative voting on …