We discuss the main fiscal policy issues in Europe, focusing on two that are at the core of the current debate. The first is that the government deficit and debt were, from the outset, the key objects of contention in the debate that led to the creation of the Eurozone, and they still are. The second issue is that a currency union implies the loss of a country-specific instrument, a national monetary policy. This puts a higher burden on fiscal policy as a tool to counteract shocks, a burden that might be even heavier now that the European Central Bank has arguably reached the Zero Lower Bound. Two obvious solutions are mutual insurance (or risk-sharing) amongst countries and a centralized stabilization policy. Yet both have been remarkably difficult to come by, especially due to political constraints. We review and discuss the relative merits of several proposals for increased insurance or centralization, or both. We conclude with an early discussion of the implications of the COVID-19 crisis for European fiscal policy reform and an assessment of the current fiscal measures.

中文翻译：

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欧洲的财政政策：关于规则、相互保险和集中化的争议

我们讨论了欧洲的主要财政政策问题，重点关注当前辩论的核心两个问题。首先，政府赤字和债务从一开始就是导致欧元区成立的辩论中争论的关键对象，现在仍然如此。第二个问题是，货币联盟意味着国家特定工具的丧失，即国家货币政策。这给作为抵消冲击的工具的财政政策带来了更高的负担，而现在欧洲央行可以说已经达到零下限，这种负担可能会更加沉重。两个明显的解决方案是国家间的相互保险（或风险分担）和集中稳定政策。然而，两者都非常难以实现，尤其是由于政治限制。我们审查并讨论了增加保险或集中化或两者兼而有之的几个提案的相对优点。最后，我们对 COVID-19 危机对欧洲财政政策改革的影响进行了早期讨论，并对当前的财政措施进行了评估。