Download or read book Government Wage Bill Management and Civil Service Reform in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union written by Mr.A. E. Wayne Mitchell and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2019-05-17 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study, we assess the size of the government wage bill and employment in the member countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union and their implications for fiscal sustainability and the adequacy of public service delivery. Over the period 2005 to 2015 their wage bill (as a percentage of GDP, government revenues and expenditures) is higher than in other small states notwithstanding recent efforts by governments to make it more manageable. The composition and distribution of employment is sub-optimal and is reflected in skills mismatches contributing to inefficiencies in public service delivery. Using a dynamic fixed-effects panel, we find that wage bill growth reflects the expansion of government activities to speed up economic and social development and that wage bill spending is procyclical in good times but is rigid during downturns. Finally, we identify the main institutional and legal reforms needed to improve wage bill management and public service efficiency.
Download or read book Eastern Caribbean Currency Union written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2011-01-28 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Real regional gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 6 percent in 2009, reflecting a collapse in tourist arrivals and foreign direct investment (FDI)-financed construction activity. The global financial and economic crisis has also exposed areas of significant weaknesses, notwithstanding reforms implemented by a number of member countries. Executive Directors concurred that the urgent challenge is fiscal consolidation. They noted IMF staff’s assessment that the real effective exchange rate (REER) appears broadly in line with current fundamentals.
Download or read book The Eastern Caribbean Economic and Currency Union written by Mr.Alfred Schipke and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2013-04-10 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Eastern Caribbean Economic and Currency Union (OECS/ECCU) is one of four currency unions in the world. As in other parts of the world in the aftermath of the global economic and financial crisis, the region is at a crossroads, facing the major challenges of creating jobs, making growth more inclusive, reforming the banking system, and managing volatility, while grappling with high public debt and persistent low economic growth. Policymakers have the critical task of implementing strong reforms to strengthen the monetary union while also laying the foundation for accelerating growth. This Handbook provides a comprehensive analysis of the key issues in the OECS/ECCU, including its organization and economic and financial sector linkages, and provides policy recommendations to foster economic growth.
Download or read book Explaining High Unemployment in ECCU Countries written by Ronald James and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2019-07-11 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, unemployment rates in some ECCU countries have been among the highest globally. This paper evaluates several factors that could explain them, finding that high unit labor costs, in a context of strong unionization, are significantly associated with high structural unemployment, while the global crisis added a cyclical component. Our analysis also suggests that high-paid jobs in the public and tourism sectors, which have been growing considerably in recent decades, could have increased the reservation wage and lowered labor force participation. We find no indication that high structural unemployment is related to the phase out of EU preferences on bananas/sugar exports or to a skills mismatch. As expected, unemployment has been substantially, but only temporarily fueled by large natural disasters.
Download or read book The Romanian Economic Reform Program written by Mr.Dimitri G. Demekas and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1991-08-01 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the start of the process of its transition to a market economy in early 1990, Romania joined the ranks of other reforming Eastern European countries. At the starting point of its reform program, however, Romania was in a deep economic and institutional crisis and had no experience in even modest attempts to reform its economy. This paper outlines the main characteristics of the Romanian economic system before the reform, and presents the evolution of the reform program, as well as its achievements in the first year or so since it was launched.
Download or read book Subsidy Reform in the Middle East and North Africa written by Mr.Carlo A. Sdralevich and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2014-07-09 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries price subsidies are common, especially on food and fuels. However, these are neither well targeted nor cost effective as a social protection tool, often benefiting mainly the better off instead of the poor and vulnerable. This paper explores the challenges of replacing generalized price subsidies with more equitable social safety net instruments, including the short-term inflationary effects, and describes the features of successful subsidy reforms.
Download or read book Serving Citizens written by Juan Carlos Cortázar Velarde and published by Inter-American Development Bank. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on civil service reform within the central administration in Latin America. It analyzes updated versions of the country assessments carried out by the Inter-American Development Bank in 2004 in 16 countries and presents a comparative analysis of the ways in which the countries have evolved during the last decade. The methodology is based on the principles of the Ibero-American Charter for Public Service. In addition, it draws lessons from reform processes, identifying strategies for civil service modernization in the region. Finally, the book proposes a possible future agenda to continue the efforts to further professionalize the civil service in Latin America.
Download or read book Eastern Caribbean Currency Union written by International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2017-06-14 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Favorable external conditions continue to support economic recovery, but flat tourism receipts and falling revenues from citizenship programs have weakened growth. Fiscal vulnerability remains a concern, with most ECCU members not reaching the 2030 public debt target of 60 percent of GDP on current policies. Despite progress on financial sector reform, bank lending continues to decline. Risks are broadly balanced, but stronger fiscal and structural policies are needed to lower debt and address impediments to medium-term growth.
Download or read book The Public Wealth of Nations written by D. Detter and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-02-05 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We have spent the last three decades engaged in a pointless and irrelevant debate about the relative merits of privatization or nationalization. We have been arguing about the wrong thing while sitting on a goldmine of assets. Don’t worry about who owns those assets, worry about whether they are managed effectively. Why does this matter? Because despite the Thatcher/ Reagan economic revolution, the largest pool of wealth in the world – a global total that is much larger than the world’s total pensions savings, and ten times the total of all the sovereign wealth funds on the planet – is still comprised of commercial assets that are held in public ownership. If professionally managed, they could generate an annual yield of 2.7 trillion dollars, more than current global spending on infrastructure: transport, power, water, and communications. Based on both economic research and hands-on experience from many countries, the authors argue that publicly owned commercial assets need to be taken out of the direct and distorting control of politicians and placed under professional management in a ‘National Wealth Fund’ or its local government equivalent. Such a move would trigger much-needed structural reforms in national economies, thus resurrect strained government finances, bolster ailing economic growth, and improve the fabric of democratic institutions. This radical, reforming book was named one of the "Books of the Year".by both the FT and The Economist.
Download or read book Public Sector Pay and Employment Reform written by Barbara Nunberg and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1988 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Overstaffed bureaucracies afflicted by eroding salaries, demoralization, corruption, moonlighting, and chronic absenteeism are often unable to carry out the key tasks of economic recovery. What should the Bank do about it?
Download or read book The State of State Reforms in Latin America written by Eduardo Lora and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2006-10-23 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latin America suffered a profound state crisis in the 1980s, which prompted not only the wave of macroeconomic and deregulation reforms known as the Washington Consensus, but also a wide variety of institutional or 'second generation' reforms. 'The State of State Reform in Latin America' reviews and assesses the outcomes of these less studied institutional reforms. This book examines four major areas of institutional reform: a. political institutions and the state organization; b. fiscal institutions, such as budget, tax and decentralization institutions; c. public institutions in charge of sectoral economic policies (financial, industrial, and infrastructure); and d. social sector institutions (pensions, social protection, and education). In each of these areas, the authors summarize the reform objectives, describe and measure their scope, assess the main outcomes, and identify the obstacles for implementation, especially those of an institutional nature.
Download or read book Alternative Paths to Public Financial Management and Public Sector Reform written by Sokbunthoeun So and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2018-08-31 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reforming public-sector organizations--their structures, policies, processes and practices--is notoriously difficult, in rich and poor countries alike. Even in the most favorable of circumstances, the scale and complexity of the tasks to be undertaken are enormous, requiring levels of coordination and collaboration that may be without precedent for those involved. Entirely new skills may need to be acquired by tens of thousands of people. Compounding these logistical challenges is the pervasive reality that circumstances often are not favorable to large-scale reform. Whether a country is rich or poor, the choice is not whether, but how, to reform the public sector--how optimal design characteristics, robust political support, and enhanced organizational capability to implement and adapt will be forged over time. This edited volume helps address the “how†? question. It brings together reform experiences in public financial management and the public sector more broadly from eight country cases in East Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, and Vietnam. These countries are at different stages of reform; most of the reform efforts would qualify as successes, while some had mixed outcomes, and others could be considered failures. The focus of each chapter is less on formally demonstrating success (or not) of specific reform, but on documenting how reformers maneuvered within different country contexts to achieve specific outcomes. Despite the great difficulty in reforming the public sector, decision-makers can draw renewed energy and inspiration, learning from those countries, sectors, and subnational spaces where substantive (not merely cosmetic) change has been achieved, and they can identify what pitfalls to avoid.
Download or read book Better Spending for Better Lives written by Alejandro Izquierdo and published by . This book was released on 2018-08-31 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rehabilitating Government written by David L. Lindauer and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes the issues affecting income security for the elderly in both developing and industrial nations. Systems providing financial security for the old are under increasing strain throughout the world. Changing demographics have led to an increased proportion of old people in the general population. Traditional means of support for the old, such as extended families, are weakening. Meanwhile, formal systems, such as government-backed pensions, have proven unstable. For these reasons economists, policymakers, and government officials are exploring ways to address such issues as: *How to ensure financial security for the old and the best ways of paying for such security *The roles of the public and private sectors when systems are used to enhance rather than detract from economic growth. This study, the first comprehensive and global examination of old age security, addresses such issues. It identifies three functions of old age financial security programs--redistribution, saving, and insurance. It evaluates the policy options for meeting these functions using two criteria: their impact on the aged and their impact on the economy as a whole. The study suggests that financial security for the old and economic growth would be better served if governments relied on three systems: 1) A publicly managed system with mandatory participation and the limited goal of reducing poverty among the old 2) A privately managed mandatory savings system 3) A voluntary savings system. These three systems would ensure against the many risks of old age. The study concludes that a combination of different income security policies is more effective than any single approach and that all countries should begin planning for their aging populations now. A Copublication of the World Bank and Oxford University Press.
Download or read book Government Pay Policies and Structural Adjustment written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1988-08-08 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The paper provides an overview of the main elements of pay systems that are typically used to remunerate government employees and, with reference to the experience of developed and developing countries, discusses structural issues frequently arising in the formulation of government pay policies: (1) the role of fringe benefits in the compensation system; (2) the pros and cons of a greater merit orientation in the pay system and of special pay schemes designed to remunerate staff at the professional and managerial level; and (3) factors determining internal pay differentials with special emphasis on the compressing effect of flat amount cost of living adjustments.
Download or read book Public Sector Reform written by World Bank. Independent Evaluation Group and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The effectiveness and efficiency of a country's public sector is vital to the success of development activities, including those the World Bank supports. Sound financial management, an efficient civil service and administrative policy, efficient and fair collection of taxes, and transparent operations that are relatively free of corruption all contribute to good delivery of public services. The Bank has devoted an increasing share of its lending and advisory support to the reform of central governments, so it is important to understand what is working, what needs improvement, and what is missing. IEG has examined lending and other kinds of Bank support in 1999-2006 for public sector reform in four areas: public financial management, administrative and civil service, revenue administration, and anticorruption and transparency. Although a majority of countries that borrowed to support public sector reform experienced improved performance in some dimensions, there were shortcomings in important areas and in overall coordination. - The frequency of improvement was higher among IBRD borrowers than among IDA borrowers. - Performance usually improved for public financial management, tax administration, and transparency, but did not usually with respect to civil service. - Direct measures to reduce corruption-- such as anticorruption laws and commissions-- rarely succeeded.
Download or read book Dominica written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2002-10-10 with total page 75 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines Dominica’s 2002 Article IV Consultation and a Request for Stand-By Arrangement (SBA). The authorities' program for 2002/03, for which support through a one-year SBA is being requested, is aimed at restoring order to the public finances and relaxing the cash constraint to protect essential public expenditure and reduce public debt to the banking system. The IMF staff is of the view that the authorities’ economic program is consistent with the objective of laying a basis for sustained growth of output and employment over the medium term.
