ABSTRACT
As a preliminary to the quantitative analysis to be undertaken in the subsequent chapters, this chapter briefly reviews the recent history of the budget deficits and the government debt in the countries of our sample. This is done by examining the recent trends in nominal deficits and its components, followed by a study of the behaviour of expenditure and revenue, along with their structure, to shed some light on the causes of the observed trends in the deficits. Since the nominal deficits are not the most appropriate concept for economic analysis, the real deficits are then examined. This is followed by a look at the history of the public debt which, of course, reflects the history of commulated budget deficits.
