FISCAL POLICY REACTION FUNCTION AND SUSTAINABILITY

The article deals with the issue of fiscal sustainability, which has gained in importance after the recent financial and sovereign debt crisis. The article defines the term of financial sustainability in its theoretical part. The next section continues with the historical fiscal data for countries in the European Union. The main part of the article estimates reaction function of fiscal policy using panel data regression model. Tests are performed for multiple groups of countries, namely for the entire European Union, the old member states, the new member states, and the states most affected by the recent financial and sovereign debt crisis. This classification allows higher accuracy and better interpretability of the model results. Data results show rather pro-cyclicality of fiscal authorities' behaviour.