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The creation of a single currency in Europe has been accompanied by some major challenges to the role of fiscal policy. The challenges came from two main directions. First, as each country had to abandon monetary policy as a tool for stabilizing its national business cycles, it seemed natural for fiscal policy to take a more prominent role in

government revenue windfalls and shortfalls an analysis for selected EU countries by Richard Morris, Claudia Rodrigues Braz, Francisco de Castro,