Colombia is an interesting case study within emerging countries. Through 150 years of democratic tradition and seven decades of sound fiscal and monetary policies, the country has displayed institutional strength and economic growth, in spite of strong external shocks, rent-seeking by sectoral...

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...

This chapter focuses on the foreign exchange constraint and capital markets across eight countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia region. Domestic macroeconomic idiosyncrasies and a host of external factors of capital flows volatility and currency pressures characterize much of the recent...

Despite the growing public debate on fiscal surprise during election periods in jurisdictions where the democratic dispensation is young, comprehensive empirical works to this effect in the case of Africa are hard to find. This study, therefore, sought to contribute to the debate on two counts....

In this paper public budgeting in Kenya as evidence of challenges for development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is examined. Tracing the efforts made by the Kenya government since independence in 1963 to 2012, successes, failures, and challenges to successful public budgeting regime in the country...

There is a long-standing debate on the relationship between economic development and environmental quality. From a sustainable development viewpoint there has been a growing concern that the economic expansion of the world economy will cause irreparable damage to our planet. In the last few...

Why are we rich and others poor? What is preventing the less-developed countries from catching up with the more developed? How did we become rich? Underlying these questions are more fundamental ones: What is the nature of economic progress? What are its causes? I seek the answers to these...