Aid is expected to promote better living standards by raising investment and growth. But aid may also affect institutions directly. In theory, these effects may or may not work in the same direction as those on investment. The authors examine the effect of aid on economic institutions and find...

This Public Expenditure Review (PER) takes stock of fiscal developments and institutions and analyzes the key issues that bear on the level, composition, challenges, and effectiveness of government spending and the stance of fiscal policy. Understanding these issues is essential, as new fiscal...

The Kyrgyz Republic has experienced modest and volatile economic expansion since the economy bottomed out from the transition recession in 1995, when GDP amounted to about half of its pre-independence levels. As a result of structural reforms at the start of transition, the emergence of...

There is extensive literature on hospital cost functions for industrial countries, but very little literature for developing countries. Yet the issues facing policy-makers in all countries are much the same: are hospitals overcapitalized, as is often claimed of U.S. hospitals? Are hospitals...

This paper builds on recent work that shows how financial sector outcomes are affected by the provision of information by financial and other entities. In particular, it shows that an indicator of economic transparency is positively related to higher levels of private credit and a lower share of...

Aid is expected to promote better living standards by raising investment and growth. But aid may also affect institutions directly. In theory, these effects may or may not work in the same direction as those on investment. The authors examine the effect of aid on economic institutions and find...

Good institutional quality (function) and similar institutional design (form) can promote international trade by reducing transactions costs. The authors evaluate the relative importance of function versus form in a gravity model, using an indicator of different legal systems as a proxy for...

Islam presents some general lessons in institution-building that has relevance for judiciary reform. She emphasizes the value of simplicity in design commensurate with country capacity, the importance of innovation and experimentation, and of economic openness in effective institution-building....

Islam explores the link between information flows and governance or institutional quality. Economic theory expounds on the importance of information on economic outcomes either through its direct effect on prices and quantities or through its effect on other factors such as institutions and the...

Trade openness has a significant impact on institutional quality, while inequality and ethnic diversity are not robustly correlated with institutional quality.In trying to explain institutional quality, different authors have come to conflicting conclusions. In tackling the problem themselves,...