This paper takes a fresh look at the current theories of structural transformation and the role of private and public fundamentals in the process. It summarizes some representative past and current experiences of various countries vis-a-vis structural transformation with a focus on the roles of...

This paper focuses on the debt build-up that frontier low-income developing countries (LIDCs) have faced since 2012. First, it documents a 20-percentage point increase in the external and government debt-to-GDP ratios, a composition shift toward higher non-concessional debt, and a rise in...

Rising income inequality has emerged as a major policy issue facing policymakers, but there is a dearth of empirical work on inequality in small states, including the Caribbean. Despite data limitations, the empirical analysis using a sample of small states finds that increased openness and...

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Belize grew faster than its regional peers. By the mid-2000s, however, economic growth had slowed down to the regional average. A vicious circle of low growth and increasing public debt has been clouding Belize's outlook. This paper applies a growth diagnostic...

Capacity development is one of the IMF's core activities. Its impact is monitored through a Results-Based Management framework. Using for the first time the resulting dataset, the paper investigates how the likelihood of achieving targeted outcomes correlates with macroeconomic conditions and...

While economists continue to debate whether particular economic policies, such as those referred to in Willliamson’s (1993) “Washington Consensus,” can spur growth in developing countries, this paper demonstrates that it is combinations of policies that are more critical for growth. Policy...

This paper suggests a conceptual framework that can serve as a basis for the design of growth-oriented adjustment programs. The two building blocks of the model are the well-known monetary approach to the balance of payments, and a variant of the open-economy neoclassical growth model. The...

This paper deals with the design of quantitative exercises relating objectives for the growth of national income over the medium term to key macroeconomic policy variables. It focuses on the roles of capital formation, saving, and total factor productivity in the process of economic growth and...

This paper extends the basic monetary model that underlies the monetary approach to the balance of payments to allow for the endogenous determination of the short-run growth rate of the economy. In the extended model domestic credit expansion affects not only the balance of payments but also the...