This paper develops an index measuring the adequacy of the institutions, rules and procedures governing the budget process in 46 African countries, presenting the most comprehensive analysis of African budget institutions hitherto conducted. The index includes the three stages of the budget...

What happens if HIPC debt relief resources are not additional? We seek to answer this question by quantifying the impact of debt service payments and aid flows in cross- country growth and investment regressions . Based on the regressions we assess the likely impact of debt relief with and...

The procyclicality of fiscal policy that is prevalent in developing countries and emerging markets is well known. Its explanation is less clear. Recently, social inequality and the combination of corruption and democracy have been suggested as alternatives to the traditional explanation of these...

Economic sanctions, and the suspension of budget support in particular, are supposed to pressure target governments to comply with donors' demands by putting spending commitments at risk. We argue that this is too simplistic since governments have more fiscal levers at their disposal. The case...

This paper analyses the effect of food price changes on household consumption (welfare) in Tanzania during the 1990s and 2000s, and simulates the welfare effect attributable to tax (tariffs and VAT) reforms, distinguishing both static (first order) and dynamic (full price) effects of price...

During recent years, new doubts about the effectiveness of international aid have emerged. One of the arguments employed to justify this sceptical view is that aid can hinder tax effort in developing countries. Nevertheless, empirical research on the aid-tax nexus is inconclusive and it shows...

Semi-autonomous revenue authorities (SARAs) have been at the centre of tax administration reform in Sub-Saharan Africa for the last 30 years. Nevertheless, the revenue effect of this reform remains highly debated (Ahlerup et al., 2015; Ebeke et al., 2016; Fjeldstad and Moore, 2009; Sarr, 2016; Von Haldenwang et...