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4.VERIFICATIONMETHODS
Inordertoanswerthequestion:GDodiscipliningpublicfinancesbylegalactsin
forceintheEuropeanUnionfavourintegration,orquitetheopposite?”,studying
changesinGDPmustalsotakeintoaccountthelevelanddistributionofincome
inthesocietiesofthecountriesstudied0Forthispurpose,themostcommonlyused
measuringtoolwasappliednamely,theGinicoefficient0
Theworkfacilitatedconstructionofasimpleeconometricmodeltostudythe
economicandsocialpotentialoftheEUmemberstatesanditschangesovertime0
4.2.Fiscalconsolidationasthebasictoolfordiscipliningpublicfnances
Forpublicfinancedisciplineintheconditionsofneweconomicgovernance,thechoice
offiscalconsolidationstrategyisofkeyimportance0Asaresultoftheambiguoususe
ofthisconcept,focusingontheexpendituresideofthebudget,bothinthesubject
literatureandinpractice,thisresearchassumesthatfiscalconsolidationisabroader
concept0Thismeansthatitisnotlimitedtotheexpendituresideofthestatebudget0
Consolidationcanalso(andexclusively)beachievedbymeanslyingontherevenue
sideofthestatebudget0However,itcanbeintuitivelyassumedthatinpracticeindi-
vidualstatestendtoapplymeasureslyingbothontheexpenditureandtheincome
sideforpublicfinancediscipline0Thisapproachdoesnotprejudgetheproportionsof
thetoolsusedonbothsidesofthebudget0Incomesidemeasuresdonotnecessarily
meananincreaseintaxburden(fiscalism)0Theymayconsist,forexample,inimproving
taxcollection,reducingthephenomenonoftransferringincometotheso-calledtax
havens0Inturn,themeasurestakentodisciplinepublicfinancesontheexpenditure
sidecanmeannotonlycutsinexpenditure,butalsoreallocationoffundsandso
improvementoftheefficiencyofpublicspending0
Theanalysisofthefiscalsituationofindividualcountriesfacesmanydefinitional
problemsthatinfluencetheassessmentofthestateofpublicfinancesrelyingonthe
budgetbalanceandpublicdebt0Thesedifferencesoccurinthedefinitionoftherange
ofthepublicfinancesectoradoptedbyagivencountryinrelationtohowitisdefinedby
theEuropeanCommission(Eurostat)0Againstthisbackground,discrepanciesbetween
assessmentsmadebynationalauthoritiesandEUauthoritiesstillcommonlyoccur0Hun-
garyandPolandstandforanexpressiveexample,sincetherewasaproblemofincluding
orexcludingOpenPensionFundstothepublicfinancesector0Thisfacthadtobetaken
intoaccountintheempiricaldataanalysismethod,becausetherewasariskofmanip-
ulationofthebasiccriteriaofpublicfinanceassessment,andthusintheassessment
oftheeffectivenessoftheadoptedfiscalconsolidationstrategiesandthetoolsused0
Anotherlevelofdiscrepancyinassessingtheconditionofpublicfinancesresulted
fromthepossibilityofpresentingthebalanceofthepublicfinancesectoronacash
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