Using a novel large-scale dataset that links thousands of expenditure programs to the Sustainable Development Goals for over a decade, we analyze the impact of public expenditure on more than 100 different development indicators. Contrary to the single-dimensional view of evaluating expenditure...

The East African Community (EAC) is working towards establishing deeper integrationbetween its six partner states. The EAC partner states are: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda,South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. This paper analyses the lessons the EuropeanUnion may offer the EAC in guarding against base...

Developing countries are presently experiencing or are shortly expected to see a “youth bulge” (a large number of young people in the national population) — some 71 in total and 11 in Asia alone — will face relatively greater employment and human capital investment challenges as a result...

This paper presents evidence on the political and economic determinants of social sector spending from a panel dataset. The principal finding is that democratization in countries, as measured by within-country variation in subjective indices of democracy, is a significant predictor of government...

I use a novel loan-level dataset covering lending by official creditors to developing country governments to construct an instrument for government spending. Loans from official creditors typically finance multiyear public spending projects, with disbursements linked to the stages of project...

This paper takes a fresh look at the issue of foreign aid fungibility.  Unlike the bulk of existing empirical studies, I employ panel data that contain information on the specific purpose for which aid is given.  This allows me to link aid given for education and healt purposes to recipient...

We show the relevance of government expenditure inefficiency using the Barro (1990) model. We estimate government inefficiency for 52 developing countries using a data envelopment analysis. The estimated inefficiencies are subsequently used in a general to specific approach in order to identify...

This paper takes a fresh look at the issue of foreign aid fungibility. Unlike the bulk of existing empirical studies, I employ panel data that contain information on the specific purpose for which aid is given. This allows me to link aid given for education and health purposes to recipient...

Substantial fiscal consolidation was achieved under the aegis of the 2003 Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. While deficits widened anew in 2008 and 2009, against the backdrop of the global financial and economic crisis, efforts to reduce them have resumed since. To ensure...

Several authors have argued that inequality hinders growth by leading to high distorting taxes and transfers. We retest whether inequality and transfers are positively linked, using several alternative definitions and data sets including new income data assembled by the World Bank. We correct an...