What Drives the Responsiveness of the Budget Balance to the Business Cycle in EU Countries

The European Commission methodology for computing the cyclically adjusted government budget balance provides a robust measurement of the fiscal position of the Member States. The fiscal semi-elasticities at the core of this method are structural parameters, mostly of fiscal nature, not linked to cyclical or other economic factors. Fiscal semi-elasticities also exhibit an emulation effect between neighbours and some groupings of countries.