The neoclassical theory of project evaluation is based on models in which agents discount the future at a constant exponential rate. But there is strong empirical evidence that people discount the future hyperbolically, applying larger annual discount rates to near-term returns than to returns...

The authors study the economic performance of ten Caribbean islands in two groups: six small islands from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and four larger islands: Barbados, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. They compute external shocks together with each...

Using the 1992 Bulgarian household budget survey, the authors analyze the distribution of income and of the income tax burden by income and expenditure class and by rural-urban sector. They find: 1) Low income inequality (although that is changing rapidly). 2) A progressive income tax system....

A recent but rapidly growing empirical literature focuses on the relationship between public and private capital. But for the most part, it ignores the heterogeneity of public investment. In many countries, especially in the developing world, public investment includes not only basic...

The authors develop a numerical endogenous growth model approximating an infinite horizon, which allows them to investigate the relationship between trade liberalization and economic growth. Economic theory generally implies that trade liberalization will improve economic growth, and the two...

This analysis conducts dynamic simulations to determine how major variables interact across sectors. Changes in growth performance, more than anything else, were responsible for the sharp drops in aggregate savings in 1980-82 in Korea and in 1984-85 in the Philippines. In Korea, per capita...

Governments in developing countries are continuously searching for new and improved tax bases. Existing methods of taxation in these countries frequently fall short of meeting acceptable criteria of efficiency, equity and administrative ease. This paper argues that there is a compelling fiscal...

This paper specifies a microeconomic model to estimate the impact of investment in public infrastructure on private industrial profitability. Empirical results based on time series data for 34 industries characterize the Mexican industrial structure as having involuntary unemployment, deficient...

The authors estimate social rates of return to electricity-generating capacity and paved roads, relative to the return on general capital, by examining the effect on aggregate output and comparing that effect with the costs of construction. They find that both types of infrastructure capital are...

The sharp drop in private savings in the 1990s in Colombia can be attributed to a decline in private disposable income and, to a lesser extent, to growth in consumption. The permanent decline in private disposable income in Colombia between 1950 and 990 is closely linked to tax increases. This...