The study of fiscal impulses in four Asian countries aims to study government expenditure and revenue policies and to assess their impacts using fiscal impulse indicators in four Asian countries, namely, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Data used are secondary data from 1987 to 2009. This study employs the fiscal impulse model developed by The Council of Economic Expert (GCEE) to determine the impact of policy. The study of government expenditure and revenue policy showed that the behaviors of fiscal policy in four Asian countries were countercyclical. However, in some cases, fiscal policy in four Asian countries had constraints such as delay in project approval process and withdrawal risk. Therefore, in some cases, fiscal policy in four Asian countries was pro-cyclical. The study fiscal impulse showed that before Asian financial crisis of 1997, rapid growth of the Asian economy fiscal impulses were negative, except for Indonesia. After the Asian financial crisis in 1998, fiscal impulse values were positive for Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore indicating that the government used expansionary fiscal policies in order to counter recession; however, it was negative for Indonesia since the government decreased government expenditure to lower its public debt. In the US financial crisis, in 2009, the positive fiscal impulse of Thailand was largest because of the First Stimulus Package, called “Patibudkarn Thai Kem-Kaeng”. Singapore used fiscal policy to help business to whether the external shock. The fiscal impulses were roughly equal for Malaysia and Indonesia. Malaysia adopted the expenditure approach to help the economy while Indonesia used revenue side because of delay in government disbursement.
