This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. This paper presents a new dataset of fiscal consolidation for 17 OECD econom ies during 1978-2009. We focus on discretionary changes in taxes and governm ent spending prim arily motivated by a desire to reduce the budget de ficit and not by a response to prospective economic conditions. T o identify the m otivation and budgetary im pact of the fiscal polic y changes, we exam ine contem poraneous policy docum ents, including Budgets, Budget Speeches, central bank reports, Convergence and Stability Programs subm itted by th e authorities to the European Commission, and IMF and OECD reports. The resulting series ca n be used to estimate the macroeconomic effects of fiscal consolidation.
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