This paper explores the impact of political and institutional variables on public investment. Working with a sample of 80 presidential and parliamentary democracies between 1975 and 2012, we find that the rate of growth of public investment is higher at the beginning of electoral cycles and...

Achieving France's medium-term fiscal targets will require significant expenditure efforts. This paper identifies areas where there is scope for increasing expenditure efficiency, with a view to achieving higher quality and more sustainable fiscal consolidation. The methodology is based on a...

This paper provides an empirical analysis of how the frequency and severity of terrorism affect government revenue and expenditure during the period 1970-2013 using a panel dataset on 153 countries. We find that terrorism has only a marginal negative effect on tax revenue performance, after...

How do policy communications on future f iscal targets af fect market expectations and beliefs about the future conduct of f iscal policy? In this paper, we develop indicators of f iscal credibility that quantify the degree to which policy announcements anchor expectations, based on the...

Achieving gender equality remains a significant challenge, that has only deepened with the on-set of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gender budgeting (GB) can help promote gender equality by applying a gender perspective to fiscal policies and the budget process. This paper takes stock of GB practices in...

The 2005 External Review of Public Financial Management (ERPFM) consists of two volumes. The first volume is the main text, while the second volume comprises statistical annexes. In the first chapter of volume I, after this introduction, macroeconomic developments are assessed, including...

Adoption of fiscal rules and fiscal councils continued to increase globally over the last decades based on two new global datasets. During the pandemic, fiscal frameworks were put to test. The widespread use of escape clauses was one of the novelties in this crisis, which helped provide policy...

This note provides an overview of recent studies that have begun to investigate how differing moral perspectives shape attitudes toward tax and spending policies. Recent advances in evolutionary moral psychology and their application to survey-based economic analysis yield promising insights....

The report, a joint effort by the Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, seeks to provide the Ecuadorian authorities with a comprehensive account of both institutions' diagnoses and recommendations in the area of fiscal management and public expenditure. This report consists of two...

The report, a joint effort by the Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, seeks to provide the Ecuadorian authorities with a comprehensive account of both institutions' diagnoses and recommendations in the area of fiscal management and public expenditure. This report consists of two...