Strategy Unit Homepage

Main navigation

Fiscal Councils

Simon Wren-Lewis, Professor of Economics at Merton College, Oxford, discussed the economic case for a publicly funded organisation – a Fiscal Council in the IMF's terminology – to help enhance the credibility and effectiveness of a country's fiscal regime. Professor Wren-Lewis outlined how such a council might operate, its relationship with government departments and compared the proposed structure with similar existing institutions overseas.

Simon Wren-Lewis began his career as an economist in HM Treasury. In 1981 he moved to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, where as a Senior Research Fellow he constructed the first versions of the world model NIGEM, and as Head of Macroeconomic Research he supervised development of this and the Institute's domestic model. In 1990 he became a professor at Strathclyde University, and built the UK econometric model COMPACT. From 1995 to 2006 he was a professor at Exeter University. He has published papers on macroeconomics in a wide range of academic journals including the Economic Journal, European Economic Review, and American Economic Review. He also wrote one of the background papers for the Treasury's 2003 assessment of its five economic tests for joining EMU and advised the Bank of England on the development of its new macromodel. His current research focuses on the analysis of monetary and fiscal policy in small calibrated macromodels, and on equilibrium exchange rates.

• The case for a UK fiscal council presentation [PDF 48KB, 10 pages]

Video

Video recording of Simon Wren-Lewis presenting ‘The case for a UK fiscal Council’

Part 1

Part 2