FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY AND PUBLIC FINANCE: an analysis of the limits of State spending in the face of extraordinary expenses caused by a public calamity

Abstract

This monograph aims to analyze budgetary rules and seek to understand if they can be a barrier
for the State to increase urgent public spending during periods of public calamity and its
consequent economic crisis. It has been observed that in recent decades, there has been a
movement that led several countries to adopt fiscal austerity measures to contain the increase
in the public deficit, resulting from years of substantial spending. However, these austere
budgetary rules, during periods of calamities and crises, can end up having the opposite effect
of what is intended. It was also sought to demonstrate that increased spending during calamitous
periods requires closer attention so that the resulting debt does not become an obstacle to the
country's sustainable growth in the post-crisis period and does not transmit institutional
insecurity to investors.