We survey quantitative fiscal conditionality in selected sub-Saharan African PRGF-supported programs, and assess the conditionality against some possible benchmarks and best practices. While noting many caveats, the paper suggests some possible scope for further attuning of this conditionality...

This paper assesses whether the scaling up of aid and the resulting increase in government spending that is needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) would be hampered by wage bill ceilings that are often part of government programs supported by the IMF`s Poverty Reduction and...

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. SOME PRINCIPLES FOR ASSESSING THE DESIGN OF FISCAL CONDITIONALITY -- III. MACROECONOMIC THRESHOLDS AND PCS Inflation -- IV. OTHER ASPECTS OF QUANTITATIVE FISCAL CONDITIONALITY DESIGN -- V. CONCLUSIONS -- REFERENCES.

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. SCALING UP AID AND THE ROLE OF THE IMF -- III. WHY WAGE BILL CEILINGS? -- IV. WAGE BILL CONDITIONALITY IN PRACTICE -- V. DO WAGE BILL CEILINGS ACCOMMODATE DONOR-FINANCED WAGE SPENDING IN PRIORITY SECTORS? -- VI. IMPROVING WAGE BILL CONDITIONALITY --...

We survey quantitative fiscal conditionality in selected sub-Saharan African PRGFsupported programs, and assess the conditionality against some possible benchmarks and best practices. While noting many caveats, the paper suggests some possible scope for further attuning of this conditionality to...