What are the Best Policy Instruments for Fiscal Consolidation?, OECD Economics – Department Policy Notes, No. 12, April.

• “Countries can reap sizeable budgetary benefits by adopting “best practices” in many spending areas, notably health and education and via pension reforms.
• Against a backdrop of often poorly targeted and sometimes quite generous benefits, some governments may benefit from reforming transfer programmes to rein in spending and to sharpen incentives to work and save.
• Revenue measures should initially concentrate on limiting tax-induced distortions that are detrimental to growth by broadening tax bases. Governments should also favour less harmful taxes, such as those on immobile property and corrective taxes such as pollution charges.
• Should the less fortunate members of society face additional hardship due to consolidation, flanking measures could cushion the blow.
• Country-specific estimates of budgetary gains from a wide range of spending and revenue measures, which have little adverse or even a positive effect on growth, at least over the medium term, have been assembled. On average across all countries, consolidation of 7% of GDP could be achieved by such measures.”