This paper examines the macroeconomic determinants of government debt in two small open economies with distinct institutional frameworks—Armenia and Slovenia. The analysis focuses on key fiscal variables (budget balance and GDP growth) and monetary factors (inflation and interest rates). Using quarterly data for the period 2004–2025 and an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, the results provide robust evidence of cointegration between government debt and its macroeconomic drivers. The findings reveal distinct debt dynamics across the two countries. […]