This paper contains a numerical listing of working papers produced by the Policy, Planning, and External Affairs Complex. Each citation contains a brief abstract, and the contact point for the paper.

Excessive budget deficits can lead to inflation, exchange crises, external debt crises, and high real interest rates - with implications for real exchange rate, the trade account, and investment. But the links are not automatic, for there are choices in the sources of financing - and lags in the...

The author focuses on the effects of age structure changes on the size of budget deficits of national governments. More specifically, he determines whether differences in age structure can account for the observed differences in budget deficits across countries as well as across time. By way of...

Zimbabwe has the uncommon combination of a high public deficit, a balanced current account, low inflation, and low levels of investment and growth. Despite a surplus in the current account, the nonfinancial public sector has run deficits exceeding 10 percent of GDP since 1981. Inflation is low...

This paper analyzes the role of public finance and trade policies in the adjustment experience of Chile over the past 15 years. The purpose is to first review the Chilean public sector and trade reforms, and then to examine their role in the economic development of Chile. The paper is divided...

Fiscal adjustment is an illusion when it lowers the budget deficit or public debt but leaves the government's net worth unchanged, says the author. Conventional measures of the budget deficit largely measure the change in explicit public sector liabilities (debt). A more appropriate measure of...

The authors describe the main trends of Brazil's fiscal policy during the past decade and analyze (1)the ability to raise the primary surplus in response to external shocks, (2) the pro-cyclical nature of fiscal policy, and (3) the long-run impact of government expenditure composition and...

Tax expenditures, in the form of tax provisions, are government expenditures. They are conceptually and functionally distinct from those tax provisions whose purpose is to raise revenue. Tax expenditure programs are comparable to entitlement programs. Therefore, tax expenditures must be analyzed...

Fiscal adjustment becomes like walking up the down escalator when growth-promoting spending is cut so much as to lower growth and thus the present value of future tax revenues to a degree that more than offsets the improvement in the cash deficit. Although short-term cash flows matter, a...

In recent years, various Latin American governments have resorted to taxes on bank debits and financial transactions as alternative ways of raising revenue. Considerable interest has developed in understanding the consequences of such reforms. The author constructs a dynamic general equilibrium...