Do Fiscal Rules Enhance States' Fiscal Capacity?
研究了1985至2021年全球数据，发现更严格的财政规则能提升公民纳税意愿，从而增强国家财政能力，且规则组合比数量更重要。
ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of fiscal rules on fiscal capacity. It is based on the premise that fiscal rules can enhance citizens' tax morale and willingness to pay taxes, thereby improving fiscal capacity. Using a global dataset spanning from 1985 to 2021, we find that stricter fiscal rules have a positive impact on fiscal capacity. This relationship holds when excluding EU countries, differentiating between supranational and national rules and employing alternative measures of fiscal capacity. Robustness checks further reveal that while fiscal capacity tends to rise with the number of rules in place, the combination of rules plays a relevant role. These findings underscore the importance of deliberately selecting and designing fiscal rules to effectively strengthen fiscal capacity.