When will the fiscal dividend appear and what is its likely magnitude? Should deficit targets be replaced by debt targets or debt/GDP targets? If so, how quickly should these targets be achieved? Or should the fiscal dividend focus on tax cuts and increases in program expenditures? Should we shift away from an annual deficit target to budget balance over the cycle in order to allow automatic stabilizers to play their important buffeting role? In this event, what level of contingency reserve is necessary to ensure that we can meet cyclical budget balance? How well are the Europeans faring in terms of these questions? These are representative of the range of issues addressed in Fiscal Targets and Economic Growth. The volume provides the necessary backdrop for the Liberals first budget of their new mandate.

The participants include Frank Denton, Byron Spencer and Craig Riddell on labour force trends; Richard Harris and Dan Trefler on productivity; views from the Conference Board, DRI/McGraw Hill, Informetrica and the Institute for Policy Analysis on long term projections; Ron Kneebone, Ken McKenzie and Pierre Fortin on automatic stabilizers; Paul Boothe, Brad Reid, and Richard Egelton on fiscal prudence; William Scarth, Harriet Jackson and Gregor Smith on optimal debt ratios; John Whalley and William Robson on how best to invest the fiscal dividend; and Leo deBever, Clement Gignac and John McCallum on where we should go from here. International perspectives are provided by Robert Westcott of the IMF and Juergen von Hagen of Bonn University. John Helliwell admirably integrates and lends perspectives to the collection of papers.