Comparative Independent Fiscal Institutions Dataset

The Comparative Independent Fiscal Institution Dataset (CifiD) provides information about the legal provisions that constitute the monitoring scope, powers and institutional design of 41 Independent Fiscal Institutions (IFIs) in 38 countries including most EU member states. The dataset covers legislative changes to these institutions until 2018.

Furthermore, based on the coding new indices on the political independence and the level of expertise of these fiscal monitoring bodies were developed, allowing researchers to investigate the roots and effectiveness of fiscal monitoring and its effects on the fiscal performance of national governments more thoroughly.

Institutional properties

The CifiD contains 42 items that refer to the institutional properties of fiscal monitoring bodies as they are defined in legislation, classified along the following dimensions:

• Institutional model, monitoring and intervention powers
• IFI design: statutory rules, operations, leadership, composition, term rules, knowledge, transparency

Two main indices were calculated and are part of the dataset:

• Formal independence from political interference
• Level of expertise