It is shown that the inefficiencies created by the “soft” budget constraint, enjoyed by enterprises in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, will continue so long as governments are unable credibly to threaten not to bail out loss-makers. Commitment to a “hard” budget constraint can best be...

This paper considers the implications of the prospective aging of the U.S. population for the social security system and concludes that the large and growing cashflow surpluses of the social security trust funds should be saved to help insulate living stands against this change. A number of...

The paper surveys the major economic, financial, and administrative issues that confront social security systems in Latin America. The larger systems have contributed substantially to public sector financial disequilibria. Expenditures of the younger systems with more limited coverage could...

This paper develops and calibrates a simple general equilibrium model with two types of labor and capital for the French economy. The simulation results indicate that targeted reductions in employer social security taxes have six times as large an effect on employment as untargeted reductions...

During the 1990s, a failure to collect social contributions in Central and Eastern European countries deprived pension schemes of resources needed to meet their obligations. Based on these countries'' experience, this paper examines the trend to increase coordination of tax and contribution...

This report provides the details of the IMF's projections and estimates of Vietnam on the summary of the tax systems; gross domestic product by expenditure categories; sector and ownership at current prices; gross domestic product by sector at constant prices during 1996–2002; consumer price...

The report provides the details of the assessment on Mongolia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. It describes the Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EGPRS), which presents main policy directions of the government with a focus on economic growth acceleration and poverty...

This paper examines Moldova’s Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (EGPRSP) covering 2004–06. The EGPRSP has the potential to become an effective tool for continuous strategic planning, and for providing for the prioritization of strategic objectives and the...

Poverty in Dominica exhibits the following: poor households tend to be larger than nonpoor households; poor households contain proportionately fewer persons of working age, and there is no significant difference in the gender distribution of poverty in the country. The challenges of this...

This Selected Issues paper highlights that the authorities in the Republic of Korea recognize the pension policy challenges ahead, and a first wave of reforms has already been launched. Despite the reforms to date, much remains to be done. Without further reforms, the public pension systems in...