Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM) invites you to a Public Forum on May 31, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. under the theme, “Do Financial Markets Bear the Cost of Curbing Government Fiscal Indiscipline? Global Evidence from Fiscal Councils (with Implications for Jamaica)”. 

Over the four decades since 1980, about 160 countries experienced at least one episode of five consecutive years of budget deficits. More than 50 countries have, to date, established fiscal councils to impose greater fiscal discipline on governments in order to reduce persistent deficits and lower uncertainty about future fiscal conditions. Consequently, we would expect that fiscal councils enhance financial development, a critical driver of economic growth, but do they? 

Professor Delroy Hunter, Professor and Serge Bonanni Professor of International Finance, Muma College of Business, University of South Florida, has recently completed extensive research in this area and the findings indicate that establishing fiscal councils generally result in unfavourable consequences that have implications for the evolution of financial markets and their role in economic growth.   

The Public Forum will discuss policy implications for countries contemplating establishing fiscal councils. We look forward to having you attend and actively participate in this Session.