“…This means that, during booms (crises), very little (too much) fiscal discipline is applied, which amplifies (worsens) booms (crises). That is, as argued by Mostak Ahamed (2017a, b, 2019), Castro and Martins (2019) and Avdjiev et al (2021), excessive risk-taking can disrupt financial stability and these, in turn, can spill to fiscal positions. Put it differently, fiscal destabilising effects engendered by financial markets may force governments towards excessive austerity, thus, deepening economic recessions (De Grauwe and Ji, 2013).2 7 F 24 These effects are more likely to take place in a monetary union, where governments issue debt in a currency that is not their own (De Grauwe and Ji, 2019), and our results suggest that they mainly operate via sovereign ratings, which tend to be pro-cyclical and exacerbate contagion (Michaelides et al, 2015).…”