Progress toward growth objectives suffered from exogenous shocks. A substantial improvement was observed in certain social indicators, particularly in the health and education sectors. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) is reputed to be a framework for convergence of all interventions...

This paper focuses on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) for the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. The National Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper represents the result of analyses of the country’s current situation as well as a set of proposals designed to rout the...

Lucas (2004) asserts that "Of the tendencies that are harmful to sound economics, the most seductive, and in my opinion the most poisonous, is to focus on questions of distribution... The potential for improving the lives of poor people by finding different ways of distributing current...

Going forward, Korea faces two closely related challenges: sustaining economic growth against the backdrop of a rapidly aging population and ameliorating income inequality. This paper argues that a gradual increase in social spending could promote more sustainable and inclusive growth in Korea....

This document presents a profile of poverty, and indicates briefly the stakes and challenges involved, using available quantitative and qualitative data to specify the targeted objectives to be reached. Actions to be taken are then positioned within a macroeconomic framework for which short- and...

We develop a micro-founded general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents to identify pertinent constraints to financial inclusion. We evaluate quantitatively the policy impacts of relaxing each of these constraints separately, and in combination, on GDP and inequality. We focus on three...

We analyze the flexibility of the Canadian labor market across provinces in both an interand intra-national context using macroeconomic data on employment, unemployment, participation, and (for Canada) migration and real wages. We find that Canadian labor markets respond in a similar manner to...

Based on the economic literature, various policy measures and institutions in the product and labor markets that increase growth and employment are studied. From a cross-country approach, this study finds a significant relationship between Vertical Fiscal Imbalances (VFIs) and fiscal performance...