This issue of Global Employment Trends for Youth provides an update on youth labour markets around the world, focusing both on the continuing labour market crisis and on structural issues in youth labour markets. The report provides an overview of youth labour markets at the global and regional...

Is the high degree of gender inequality in developing countries in education, personal autonomy, and more explained by underdevelopment itself? Or do the societies that are poor today hold certain cultural views that lead to gender inequality? This article discusses several mechanisms through...

India’s foreign policy has had an anomalous quality since the time Jawaharlal Nehru resolutely attempted to steer clear of Cold War alliances. This continues to be so given India’s unique situation of establishing “strategic relations†with both Israel and Iran, as part...

A comprehensive inventory of bilateral FTAs on a global scale, with sections on Africa and the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. It highlights the key points of each agreement, and details planned future developments. Background paper prepared for the...

The most popular technique for estimating tax elasticities is the “Proportional Adjustment†method. This paper shows that the standard methodology used will almost invariably lead to biased elasticity estimates, and proposes an alternative methodology which avoids this problem. [WP]

The Finances of the PRIs are looked into. The role of 13th Finance Commission is explained. Some ‘learnings’ from International experience is given.

1) Allocating budget to the measure for the real revitalization of Japan to recover Japan’s economy and society 2) Reviewing the existing budget based on the result of evaluation by the Policy Proposing Type Screening 3) Reducing public sector’s waste thoroughly 4) Following the...

This week, the finance minister presents a statement to Parliament of how much money the central government expects to raise in the next financial year, and how it will spend that money. The budget speech is also used by the government to propose other policy measures. In this primer the paces...

The Indian tax reform experience can provide useful lessons for many countries due to the largeness of the country with multilevel fiscal framework, uniqueness of the reform experience and difficulties in calibrating reforms due to institutional constraints. This paper details the evolution of...

The challenge to the tax system to expand both the revenue base and progressively bring into the net larger number of taxpayers remains as daunting as ever. The object is not to ignore the generally beneficial impact of deregulation and tax friendly measures in providing a more conducive...