Social safety nets protect citizens against hardship. By offering compensation, social safety nets may help overcome the political resistance to trade liberalisation and structural reform, but they can also weaken the incentives to work and save. Depending on their design, safety nets may also...

In accordance with decisions made by the FDI, the OECD has initiated surveys on fiscal decentralisation for the purpose of providing international comparisons on the design of fiscal systems across levels of government. The FDI is a joint initiative of the OECD, the World Bank, USAID, the...

Major budgeting reforms have been initiated in a number of OECD countries in recent years. These reforms focus on giving spending agencies greater flexibility in using resources, in exchange for holding them responsible for achieving results. This publication examines how five Member countries...

This paper considers the case for adjusting measures of the cyclically-adjusted fiscal balance for exceptional movements in the terms of trade for those countries where production of commodities is a substantial share of output. For such countries exceptional movements in commodity prices, such...

The purpose of this volume is to provide a reference book and a training manual for public administrators in the transitional economies, and in particular for officials with budgeting and policy-making responsibilities. The book is a follow-up to the Multicountry Seminar in Ljubljana (1-2 April...

In accordance with decisions made by the FDI, the OECD has initiated surveys on fiscal decentralisation for the purpose of providing international comparisons on the design of fiscal systems across levels of government. The FDI is a joint initiative of the OECD, the World Bank, USAID, the...

Money's destiny is to become digital. Throughout the ages physical money in the form of objects, coins and notes has increasingly been replaced by more abstract means of payment such as bills of exchange, cheques and credit cards. In the years to come that trend to virtual money will continue...

Functioning states are essential for reducing poverty, sustaining peace and achieving agreed development goals. Despite receiving growing international attention in recent years, fragile states are falling behind other low-income countries in human development. Fragility – and its negative...