This paper explores the determinants of public employment across the world and finds that it is negatively associated with country size (by population) and positively associated with the income level. The findings show that a country's openness to trade is positively associated with public...

The report and the summary review the recent economic and fiscal performance of Mongolia; outline current medium-term prospects of Mongolia's economy; discuss short-term risks and structural vulnerabilities; and comment on the efficiency of past public investment programs and practices

This Public Expenditure Review (PER) was prepared in response to a request from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and is designed to inform Lesotho's fiscal consolidation due to a narrowing of its fiscal space. Lesotho is facing a tough macro-fiscal outlook due to a sharp decline in Southern African...

The analysis presented in this Public Expenditure Review (PER) is designed to support the efforts of the government of Gabon (GOG) to enhance public expenditure efficiency and improve the quality of public goods and services. The report reviews public expenditure data over an 8-year period,...

Myanmar had a strong economic take off between 2011 and 2015, but sustaining it will depend on improvements to public services and infrastructure. Yet general government spending at 15 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) is much lower than what is needed to deliver these improvements, and...

Ghana has experienced an extended period of robust growth since the early 2000s, supported by a favorable external environment and large investment inflows, particularly in the extractive industries. In 2011, as the start of oil production drove a surge in per capita income, Ghana graduated from...

This paper reviews the determinants of Latin America's uneven growth based on an accounting decomposition that breaks down countries' growth (relative to the world) into three trade-related channels: (i) an export pull measuring the traction exerted by the country's exports, (ii) an external...

Although there is wide recognition of the negative consequences of policy volatility for countries' long-term economic growth, there is limited empirical work on this subject. One of the reasons is the difficulty of measuring policy volatility over long periods of time, especially in developing...