Download or read book Walking up the down escalator public investment and fiscal stability written by William Easterly and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Fiscal adjustment becomes like walking up the down escalator when growth-promoting spending is cut so much as to lower growth and thus the present value of future tax revenues to a degree that more than offsets the improvement in the cash deficit. Although short-term cash flows matter, a preponderant focus on them encourages governments to invest too little. Cash flow targets also encourage governments to shift investment spending off budget, by seeking private investment in public projects-irrespective of its real fiscal or economic benefits. To evade the action of cash flow targets, some have suggested excluding from their scope certain investments (such as those undertaken by public enterprises deemed commercial or financed by multilaterals). These stopgap remedies might sometimes help protect investment, but they do not provide a satisfactory solution to the underlying problem. Governments can more effectively reduce the biases created by the focus on short-term cash flows by developing indicators of the long-term fiscal effects of their decisions, including accounting and economic measures of net worth, and where appropriate including such measures in fiscal targets or even fiscal rules, replacing the exclusive focus on liquidity and debt.
Download or read book Walking Up the Down Escalator written by William Easterly and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiscal adjustment becomes like walking up the down escalator when growth-promoting spending is cut so much as to lower growth and thus the present value of future tax revenues to a degree that more than offsets the improvement in the cash deficit. Although short-term cash flows matter, a preponderant focus on them encourages governments to invest too little. Cash flow targets also encourage governments to shift investment spending off budget, by seeking private investment in public projects-irrespective of its real fiscal or economic benefits. To evade the action of cash flow targets, some have suggested excluding from their scope certain investments (such as those undertaken by public enterprises deemed commercial or financed by multilaterals). These stopgap remedies might sometimes help protect investment, but they do not provide a satisfactory solution to the underlying problem. Governments can more effectively reduce the biases created by the focus on short-term cash flows by developing indicators of the long-term fiscal effects of their decisions, including accounting and economic measures of net worth, and where appropriate including such measures in fiscal targets or even fiscal rules, replacing the exclusive focus on liquidity and debt.
Download or read book Walking Up the Down Escalator written by William Easterly and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiscal adjustment becomes like walking up the down escalator when growth-promoting spending is cut so much as to lower growth and thus the present value of future tax revenues to a degree that more than offsets the improvement in the cash deficit. Although short-term cash flows matter, a preponderant focus on them encourages governments to invest too little. Cash flow targets also encourage governments to shift investment spending off budget, by seeking private investment in public projects-irrespective of its real fiscal or economic benefits. To evade the action of cash flow targets, some have suggested excluding from their scope certain investments (such as those undertaken by public enterprises deemed commercial or financed by multilaterals). These stopgap remedies might sometimes help protect investment, but they do not provide a satisfactory solution to the underlying problem. Governments can more effectively reduce the biases created by the focus on short-term cash flows by developing indicators of the long-term fiscal effects of their decisions, including accounting and economic measures of net worth, and where appropriate including such measures in fiscal targets or even fiscal rules, replacing the exclusive focus on liquidity and debt.
Download or read book Walking Up the Down Escalator written by Timothy C. Irwin and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When growth-promoting spending is cut so much that the present value of future government revenues falls by more than the immediate improvement in the cash deficit, fiscal adjustment becomes like walking up the down escalator. Although short-term cash flows matter, too tight a focus on them encourages governments to invest too little. Cash-flow targets also encourage governments to shift investment spending off budget by seeking private investment in public projects, irrespective of its real fiscal or economic benefits. To deal with this problem, some observers have suggested excluding certain investments (such as those undertaken by public enterprises deemed commercial or financed by multilaterals) from cash-flow targets. These stopgap remedies may help protect some investments, but they do not provide a satisfactory solution to the underlying problem. Governments can more effectively reduce the biases created by the focus on short-term cash flows by developing indicators of the long-term fiscal effects of their decisions, including accounting and economic measures of net worth, and, where appropriate, including such measures in fiscal targets or even fiscal rules.
Download or read book Walking Up the Down Escalator written by William Easterly and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiscal adjustment becomes like walking up the down escalator when growth-promoting spending is cut so much as to lower growth and thus the present value of future tax revenues to a degree that more than offsets the improvement in the cash deficit. Although short-term cash flows matter, a preponderant focus on them encourages governments to invest too little. Cash flow targets also encourage governments to shift investment spending off budget, by seeking private investment in public projects-irrespective of its real fiscal or economic benefits. To evade the action of cash flow targets, some have suggested excluding from their scope certain investments (such as those undertaken by public enterprises deemed commercial or financed by multilaterals). These stopgap remedies might sometimes help protect investment, but they do not provide a satisfactory solution to the underlying problem. Governments can more effectively reduce the biases created by the focus on short-term cash flows by developing indicators of the long-term fiscal effects of their decisions, including accounting and economic measures of net worth, and where appropriate including such measures in fiscal targets or even fiscal rules, replacing the exclusive focus on liquidity and debt.
Download or read book Defining the Government s Debt and Deficit written by Mr.Timothy C Irwin and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2015-11-20 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the budget deficit and the public debt feature prominently in political debate and economic research, there is no agreement about how they should be measured. They can be defined for different sets of public institutions, including the nested sets corresponding to central government, general government, and the public sector, and, for any definition of government, there are many measures of the debt and deficit, including those generated by four kinds of accounts (cash, financial, full accrual, and comprehensive), which can be derived from four nested sets of assets and liabilities. Each debt and deficit measure says something about public finances, but none tells the whole story. Each is also vulnerable to manipulation, and is likely to be manipulated if it is subject to a binding fiscal rule or target. Narrow definitions of government encourage the shifting of spending to entities outside the defined perimeter of government. Narrow definitions of debt and deficit encourage operations involving off-balance-sheets assets and liabilities, while broad measures are susceptible to the mismeasurement of on-balance-sheet assets and liabilities. Reviewing the literature on these issues, the paper concludes that governments should publish several measures of the debt and deficit in a form that clearly reveals their interrelationships.
Download or read book Hollowed Out written by David Madland and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2015-06-24 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the past several decades, politicians and economists thought that high levels of inequality were good for the economy. But because America’s middle class is now so weak, the US economy suffers from the kinds of problems that plague less-developed countries. As Hollowed Out explains, to have strong, sustainable growth, the economy needs to work for everyone and expand from the middle out. This new thinking has the potential to supplant trickle-down economics—the theory that was so wrong about inequality and our economy—and shape economic policymaking for generations.
Download or read book The State and the Private Sector in Latin America written by M. Font and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-06-16 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book follows ten political economic histories since the 1970s, showing how different forms of partnership have developed, flourished or declined over the time. The author's argument is supported by rich empirical material. It places partnership schemes in a broader social context and provides a deep insight into the phenomenon.
Download or read book Reflections on the Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis written by Aristidis Bitzenis and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-09-26 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The euro was generally considered a success in its first decade. Nevertheless, the “unanticipated” financial crisis in the summer of 2007 has developed gradually into the worst global economic crisis in post-war economic history and a sovereign debt crisis, calling into question the endurance of positive externalities under the current form of European economic integration. The experience of double-dip recessions in the core of the euro-area and the occurrence of a deflationary spiral in its southern periphery brings into question the wisdom of fiscal consolidation via austerity in the adjustment programmes adopted to exit the crisis. They also put into doubt the adequacy and efficiency of the European Economic and Monetary Union’s core elements, its political instruments and macroeconomic assumptions, as can be seen in the role of the Stability and Growth Pact and the stance of the European Central Bank. The title of this collective volume refers to the country where the European sovereign debt crisis began, while its contents concentrate on the extent to which this crisis should be a national or a European concern. Moreover, the focus on Greece stimulates discussion about the neglected factor of the shadow economy and the potential to boost government revenue through its successful transfer to the formal economy. The chapters address the inefficiencies of both euro-area institutions and policies adopted to exit the current predicament. Experts from several disciplines review the literature and critically evaluate the existence of issues such as contagion effects, domino effects, deflationary spirals, institutional efficiency and the reality of the option to exit the euro-area.
Download or read book Rents to Riches written by Naazneen Barma and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2011-12-08 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on the political economy surrounding the detailed decisions that governments make at each step of the value chain for natural resource management. From the perspective of public interest or good governance, many resource-dependent developing countries pursue apparently short-sighted and sub-optimal policies in relation to the extraction and capture of resource rents, and to spending and savings from their resource endowments. This work contextualizes these micro-level choices and outcomes.
Download or read book Promoting Inclusive Growth Challenges and Policies written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2012-04-06 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume discusses several policy challenges facing countries to achieve and sustain inclusive growth. The volume is based on the proceedings of a conference co-organised by the OECD Economics Department and the World Bank on 24-25 March 2011.
Download or read book Globalization and Growth written by Michael Spence and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-04-02 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume provides a comprehensive overview of the financial and economic crises of 2008-2009 and the economic and financial policy implications for growth in developing countries.
Download or read book The Oxford Companion to the Economics of Africa written by Ernest Aryeetey and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-19 with total page 686 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This compendium of entries provides thematic and country perspectives to create a picture of the concerns of modern economics in Africa, with contributions from more than 100 leading economic analysts of Africa.
Download or read book Fiscal Policy Stabilization and Growth written by Guillermo E. Perry and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007-10-19 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiscal policy in Latin America has been guided primarily by short-term liquidity targets whose observance was taken as the main exponent of fiscal prudence, with attention focused almost exclusively on the levels of public debt and the cash deficit. Very little attention was paid to the effects of fiscal policy on growth and on macroeconomic volatility over the cycle. Important issues such as the composition of public expenditures (and its effects on growth), the ability of fiscal policy to stabilize cyclical fluctuations, and the currency composition of public debt were largely neglected. As a result, fiscal policy has often amplified cyclical volatility and dampened growth. 'Fiscal Policy, Stabilization, and Growth' explores the conduct of fiscal policy in Latin America and its consequences for macroeconomic stability and long-term growth. In particular, the book highlights the procyclical and anti-investment biases embedded in the region's fiscal policies, explores their causes and macroeconomic consequences, and asesses their possible solutions.
Download or read book The World Bank Research Observer written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fiscal Rules Public Investment and Growth written by Luis Serven and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Solvency is an intertemporal concept, relating to the present value of revenues and expenditures, and encompassing both assets and liabilities. But the standard practice among policy makers, financial market participants and international financial institutions is to assess the strength of the fiscal accounts solely on the basis of the cash deficit. Short-term cash flows matter, but a preponderant focus on them can encourage governments to invest too little, especially during episodes of fiscal tightening. This has potentially adverse consequences for growth and, paradoxically, even for fiscal solvency itself. The paper offers an overview of the links between fiscal targets, public investment, and public sector solvency. After reviewing the international experience with public investment under fiscal adjustment, the paper lays out an analytical framework to illustrate the consequences of using the public deficit as a guide to solvency. The paper then discusses some alternatives to conventional cash deficit rules and their implications for investment and fiscal solvency.
Download or read book The Power of Public Investment Management written by Anand Rajaram and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public resources, if invested well in public infrastructure and services, can unleash inclusive growth and development. This report provides a simple but comprehensive framework and global experience, to help policy makers adopt good functional principles in the design of institutions to strengthen public investment management.
