Are Preferences for Fiscal Discipline Endogenous

Differences in voters' fiscal preferencesare examined taking advantage of theexceptional Swiss institutional setting.Empirical evidence suggests thatpreferences are determined by strictlycultural patterns (cultural area measuredby language). Thus, fiscal preferences canbe considered as being largely exogenous.This implies that, except for specialcases, it is not possible to find simpleproxy variables for fiscal preferences. Anad hoc index of fiscal preferencesought to be built up when the introductionof this variable is required forcomprehensive explanatory models of fiscaldiscipline or for other related studies.