6533b826fe1ef96bd128456b

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Arithmetic visibility estimates for OECD countries with three government levels

subject

description

The importance of fiscal visibility has been well known for a long time but attempts to quantify it by taking the internal structure of every type of revenue and expenditure in a fiscal system into consideration are recent. Indicators used until now rest on structural parameters combined in a multiplicative way with a 0 estimate always resulting in at least one of such factors being null. An alternative way to measure fiscal visibility consists of combining parametric values in an additive instead of a multiplicative form. Calculations can then show estimates which are much more sensitive to the initial values. The aim of this contribution is to present new additive indicators that are applied to several territorial government levels in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the U. S. Comparisons, conclusions, and comments are offered for general development.