This paper uses a simple model to analyze the forces that determine the size of the public sector and the quality of workers employed in that sector. Workers are heterogeneous, and the public sector chooses an employment strategy that maximizes a social welfare function U(s, Y) that depends on...

This paper develops indices of fiscal transparency for a broad range of countries based on the IMF''s Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency, using data derived from published fiscal transparency modules of the Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSCs). The indices covers...

This Selected Issues paper on Burundi highlights that after the Arusha Peace Agreement in 2000 Burundi has faced a wide range of challenges to generate sustained and equitable economic growth and improve social conditions. Burundi has begun to stabilize the economy, liberalized the trade and...

Burundi is in great need of investment in infrastructure, but fiscal constraints leave little room for additional public spending. Despite this initial recovery, Burundi has yet to rebuild its pre-civil war level of public capital stock. Improving the business climate is one of the keys to...

The strategy underlying the Arusha agreement envisaged a three-year transition period, involving further national reconciliation steps, implementation of lasting power-sharing arrangements, and initiation of national reconstruction. To overcome poverty, Burundi should diversify its economy and...

This paper examines the empirical evidence on the contribution that government and, in particular, capital expenditure make to the growth performance of a sample of developing countries. Using the Denison growth accounting approach, this study finds that social expenditures may have a...

Investigates the macroeconomic challenges for low-income countries created by a surge in aid inflows. It develops an analytical framework for examining possible policy responses to increased aid, and then applies this framework to the experience of five relatively well-governed countries that...

This Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix paper on Bosnia and Herzegovina provides background information for the 1999 Article IV Consultation with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The economy has been dominated by a small number of large state-owned enterprises. A central policy was settled during...