Reconciling Insurance with Market Discipline: A Blueprint for a European Fiscal Union
26 Pages Posted: 7 Aug 2015
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Reconciling Insurance with Market Discipline: A Blueprint for a European Fiscal Union
Date Written: July 2015
Abstract
This contribution develops a blueprint for a European fiscal union. The proposal addresses the shortcomings of most other reform designs which do not offer a solution for insolvent or non-cooperative euro countries. We suggest a design which combines fiscal insurance with an orderly procedure to restructure the debt of an insolvent euro member. We show that fiscal insurance and a sovereign insolvency procedure are no contradiction but, on the contrary, mutually enforcing: An effective fiscal insurance helps to limit the stability risks involved in the implementation of an insolvency regime for sovereigns. And vice versa, a well-defined insolvency procedure reduces the danger that a fiscal capacity motivated as an insurance against transitory asymmetric shocks degenerates into a permanent transfer system. Moreover, we show that both elements are a helpful complement for the functioning of the European banking union and the new European fiscal governance.
Keywords: sovereign insolvency procedure, European unemployment insurance, euro area debt crisis
JEL Classification: H87, H12
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation