As part of UNICEF's Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities, several countries in East Asia and the Pacific have undertaken national child poverty and disparity studies. In this paper, results from seven of those countries, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vanuatu...

This paper was commissioned by the UN Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF’s) regional office in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). UNICEF’s rationale for engagement in social protection is grounded in its commitment to human rights, and recognition of the contribution social protection can...

The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of fiscal policies and PFM reforms in 7 countries in the Western Balkans and 12 countries in the CIS, including major macroeconomic and poverty trends, fiscal policy, the size and role of the public sector, public expenditure management and its...

While it is recognized that effective state institutions are pivotal for economic development, it is not well understood what their origins are and what explains their cross-country differences. We focus on budget institutions in developing economies, as efficient public finance planning in such...

Budget reliability is the first pillar of Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA). In this study, we construct an expansion of the PEFA government response accuracy indicator and test its decomposition, with an application to the government budgets and state general accounts of...

Since 2008, the world economy has been facing the consequences of the global financial crisis. As a result, many economic policy paradigms have been revised, and this process is far from complete. The policy area, which needs a fundamental rethinking (especially in advanced economies), relates...