This paper discusses the tax system in the Czech Republic and offers some specific suggestions for reform. Viewed in international context, the Czech system is broadly similar to those operated in other OECD countries. Like them, it exhibits a number of non-neutral features, some of which...

This paper examines within an international context, the healthcare system in Hungary. While the system resembles in many of its broad features those of other OECD countries, Hungarians have the lowest life expectancy in the OECD and its rate of increase over the last 20 years has been much...

With almost 50 per cent of the working age population not working, improving labour market performance represents an essential and daunting challenge for Poland. While some of today’s joblessness is cyclical in nature, most of it appears to be structural. This paper argues that to increase...

This paper assesses the public expenditure system in Poland and the scope for its reform. Though a number of important steps to control the future evolution of spending, such as pension reform and healthcare reform, have already made in Poland, much more needs to be done. Indeed budget...

This paper summarizes the World Bank's approach to identifying parameters for key equations in its macro structural model for countries where short sample sizes or major structural changes render traditional time-series approaches infeasible or yield unstable estimates. To identify parameters...

This paper outlines the structure and economic foundation of the World Bank's macroeconomic and fiscal model (MFMod). MFMod consists of individual country models for 181 countries. The models are used by country economists within the World Bank's Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Global...

This paper describes a modeling methodology that embeds climate damages from natural disasters and risk management strategies into a macroeconomic model for Jamaica. The modeled damages take the form of capital destruction, and the risk management strategies considered are (i) adaptation...