Fiscal Policy Learning from Crisis: Comparative Analysis of the Baltic Countries

Abstract

Her main research interests are fiscal policy, public budgeting, and public management reforms.

Policy learning type shifts during creeping crises: A storyboard of COVID‐19 driven learning in Belgium

“…The learning‐crisis nexus flows in two main streams: intercrisis and intracrisis learning (see Kamkhaji & Radaelli, 2017). The intercrisis learning stream mainly focuses on lesson types, the institutionalization of lessons, and their contribution to postcrisis policy and institutional changes (e.g., Hulme, 2012; Raudla et al, 2018). The intracrisis learning stream, on the other hand, focuses on actor interactions, learning dynamics, what lessons they produce, and how, within ongoing crises (e.g., Deverell, 2009; Kamkhaji & Radaelli, 2017; Lee et al, 2020; Zaki & Wayenberg, 2021).…”

“…Policy learning is recognized by research and practice as a key mechanism for responding to complex policy issues (e.g., Baekkeskov, 2016; Dunlop, 2017; Haas, 1992; Nilsson, 2006). Policy learning processes generate lessons from past and ongoing experiences (e.g., Lee et al, 2020; Raudla et al, 2018), as well as help, decipher the logic of policy change (e.g., Bennett & Howlett, 1992; Dunlop & Radaelli, 2017). Accordingly, policy learning scholarship has burgeoned over recent decades, revealing a plethora of learning types.…”

This time was different: the budgetary responses to the pandemic-induced crisis in Estonia

“…Raess and Pontusson, 2015;Starke et al, 2014). From a dynamic perspective, a government can engage in policy-learning (Dunlop and Radaelli, 2016) and draw lessons from previous crisis experiences and adjust their policy measures accordingly (Raudla et al, 2018a). Furthermore, a government's responses may also be shaped by policy diffusion: observing how other countries respond to a crisis and emulating measures that are perceived to be successful (Douglas et al, 2015;Marsh and Sharman, 2009).…”

“…However, these austerity measures aggravated the economic recession (in 2009, GDP declined almost 15%). As a result, policy actors are now more inclined than before to engage in counter-cyclical fiscal policies (Raudla et al, 2018a).…”

How does policy learning take place across a multilevel governance architecture during crises?

“…This resulted in two main strands of crisis learning research emerging: inter-crisis and intra-crisis learning (see Kamkhaji and Radaelli, 2017). Inter-crisis (that is, post-crisis) learning focuses on the retrospective production of lessons, their types, depth and degrees of institutionalisation (for example, Raudla et al, 2018). Intra-crisis learning mainly focuses on how policy learning processes interact with the crisis context to produce different types of lessons as crisis episodes unfold (for example, Kamkhaji and Radaelli, 2017;Zaki et al, 2022a).…”