State Finance Beyond the Core Budget: Off-Balance-Sheet Fiscal Agencies in Germany’s Fiscal Ecosystem

The state is often perceived as a unitary fiscal actor, operating through a core budget managed by the treasury. However, recent scholarship increasingly emphasizes the role of off-balance-sheet fiscal agencies (OBFAs)—entities distinct from the treasury but tasked with similar fiscal activities, often backed by implicit or explicit state guarantees. This creates a complex and historically contingent “fiscal ecosystem,” shaped by political, economic, and legal dynamics. Using Germany as a case study, this article develops a methodology to categorize and map its extensive ecosystem of OBFAs, which number in the tens of thousands. These entities are analyzed in relation to their legal status, revenue models, and debt-issuance practices, with particular attention to their alignment with Germany’s constitutional debt brake and EU fiscal rules. The German case illustrates how states extend their fiscal reach by operating a more complex web of balance sheets than is often thought.