Walter Korpi argues in a previous issue of Challenge (March/April 2000) that Swedish economists' claim that Sweden's growth performance has been inferior to that of other industrialized countries is at odds with the facts. Since Sweden has not grown slowly relative to other countries, there is...

"The authors describe the main trends of Brazil's fiscal policy during the past decade and analyze (1) the ability to raise the primary surplus in response to external shocks, (2) the pro-cyclical nature of fiscal policy, and (3) the long-run impact of government expenditure composition and...

This Public Expenditure Review analyzes trends in revenues, expenditures and development outcomes over the past 10 years. Its main findings are that, since the late 1990s, the Philippines has been caught in a low-revenue, low-expenditure trap and that the current level of public revenues is not...

Chad is among the poorest countries in the world. Around 55 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and about 36 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty. The opportunity to reduce widespread poverty provided by the dramatic increase in revenues has been, however, mostly...

This report examines the fiscal prospects of major units of sub-national government in the voivodship (province) of Mazowieckie and proposes a series of reforms in recurrent spending and capital investment planning. Mazowieckie, the seat of Warsaw, is the heart of the Polish economy. While...

Agriculture sector growth in Myanmar averaged 2.5 percent during 2009/10-2016/17. This compares to only half of the growth rate in neighboring China and Thailand at the same stage of their economic development and less than one-third of nonagricultural growth in Myanmar. This low agricultural...