This paper looks at the empirical record whether big infrastructure and public capital drives have succeeded in accelerating economic growth in low-income countries. It looks at big long-lasting drives in public capital spending, as these were arguably clear and exogenous policy decisions. On...

Adequate infrastructure has long been viewed as an important factor in economic development. Based on regressions covering 76 advanced and emerging market economies, this paper estimates the impact of infrastructure and investment on income distribution. It finds that better infrastructure, both...

The Philippines’ macroeconomic fundamentals have improved considerably during the past decade. However, new macrofinancial challenges are emerging. The economy is continuing to adjust to the large persistent inflows from abroad. Transmission of domestic policy interest rates has been...

Uruguay has consolidated economic gains, supported by strong macroeconomic policies and a broadly favorable external environment. Growth has exceeded expectations, unemployment has reached record lows, and poverty has continued to fall, while economic vulnerabilities have been significantly...

The recent global financial crisis has exposed the limitations of a conventional inflation targeting framework in insulating an economy from all shocks, and demonstrated that its rigid application may aggravate the effect of shocks on output and inflation. Possible refinements to the inflation...