Government usually tends to have two options. They can either pursue a tax revenue maximizing strategy or a growth maximizing strategy. The two approached do not necessarily go hand in hand. This paper derives and empirically estimates a simple laissez faire optimal taxation model from the...

Countries vary widely with respect to the share of government spending on health, a metric that can serve as a proxy for the extent to which health is prioritized by governments. World Health Organization (WHO) data estimate that, in 2011, health's share of aggregate government expenditure in...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of human capital technology spillovers across countries in converging their growth rates. Design/methodology/approach – This paper develops a closed form mathematical endogenous growth model and applies it to a small open economy...

This paper presents an overview of recent U.S. fiscal developments and discusses possible implications of the sharp turn around in the government’s fiscal position. Against this back ground, it also reviews key policy challenges that will need to be addressed to cope with the mounting...

Focus. The 2014 Article IV Consultation focused on five broad themes to strengthen the recovery and improve the long-term outlook: raising productivity growth and labor force participation, confronting poverty, keeping public debt on a sustained downward path, smoothly managing the exit from...

A multiregional econometric model evaluates the impacts of changes in monetary policy on economic development in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan parts of each of the four principal U S Census regions Regional variations in the adaptation to a change in national monetary policy depend on a...

This report documents an applied general equilibrium model of the United States. The model features explicit treatment of Federal, State, and local taxes and is segmented into 10 distinct subregions. These subregions engage in inter- and intraregional trade, as well as international trade. Each...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to relate the marginal crisis risk of Woodford to a number of financial fragility indicators. The paper expands the interest rate gap approach by considering the capital structure of investments and systemic risk, dating back to Modigliani-Miller. The...