What do top economists think of the UK’s post-COVID fiscal rules?

The October 2021 Centre for Macroeconomics survey asked the members of its UK panel to evaluate the performance of UK fiscal rules to date and which rules would best serve the British economy going forward. The majority of the panel thinks the sequence of fiscal rules in place in the UK since 1997 has caused a material reduction in UK public debt. However, twice as many panellists thought these rules harmed the conduct of macroeconomic policy than those that thought they helped. Going forward, a majority of the panel believes that well-designed rules limiting public deficits or debts would best improve the conduct of macroeconomic policy – but nearly a third would scrap fiscal rules altogether, says Ethan Ilzetzki (LSE).