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Subsidy Reform in the Middle East and North Africa
In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries price subsidies are common, especially on food and fuels. However, these are neither well targeted nor cost effective as a social protection tool, often benefiting mainly the better off instead of the poor and vulnerable. This paper explores the challenges of replacing generalized price subsidies with more equitable social safety net instruments, including the short-term inflationary effects, and describes the features of successful subsidy reforms.
Public Wage Bills in the Middle East and Central Asia
Analysis of policies for managing public sector wage bills in the Middle East and Central Asia region. While some work has been done recently at the Fund on issues related to government employment and compensation, to our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically examine, with a focus on the Middle East and Central Asia region, the recent trends and drivers of public wage bills in the region and to identify key policy implications.
Tax Avoidance in Sub-Saharan Africa’s Mining Sector
This paper aims to contribute to the international policy debate around profit shifting, tax avoidance and SSA’s revenue mobilization efforts in three ways. First, it examines the importance of mining, the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs), and mining revenue outcomes in SSA. Second, it assesses the magnitude of profit shifting in mining drawing on new macro level research, supplemented by case studies to illustrate the lived experience of tax avoidance in SSA mining. Third, the paper identifies tax policy reforms that could boost revenue mobilization in SSA.
How to Achieve Inclusive Growth
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Rising inequality and widespread poverty, social unrest and polarization, gender and ethnic disparities, declining social mobility, economic fragility, unbalanced growth due to technology and globalization, and existential danger from climate change are urgent global concerns of our day. These issues are intertwined. They therefore require a holistic framework to examine their interplay and bring the various strands together. Leading academic economists have partnered ...
Macroeconomic Policy in Fragile States
Setting macroeconomic policy is especially difficult in fragile states. Political legitimacy concerns are heightened, raising issues such as who the policymakers are, what incentives they face, and how the process of policymaking is likely to work under limited legitimacy and high uncertainty both about the macroeconomic environment as well as policy effectiveness. In addition, fragility expands the range of policy objectives in ways that may constrain the attainment of standard macroeconomic objectives. Specifically, in the context of fragility policymakers also need to focus on measures to mitigate fragility itself - i.e., they need to address issues such as regional and ethnic economic di...
Pakistan
This Selected Issues paper provides an overview of social safety nets (SSNs) in Pakistan and uses a frontier analysis approach to assess their efficiency in reducing poverty and inequality. SSNs in Pakistan were significantly strengthened over time but remain small against regional and emerging markets’ averages. The analysis suggests that stepping up public expenditure in SSNs is needed to alleviate still high poverty and inequality. To this end, finalizing the update of the Benazir Income Support Program beneficiaries’ database, broadening its coverage, and stepping up educational transfers is key. In parallel, continuing the energy subsidies reform would create fiscal space to strengthen SSNs and priority social spending.
Algeria
This paper studies the main sources for growth in Algeria within a cross-country analysis and draws policy recommendations to support faster growth. In Section 1, a growth accounting exercise framework has been explained, and in Section 2, the determinants for growth are identified. This study examines the factors behind the recent increase in inflation and the policies that should be implemented to bring inflation back to the level targeted by the monetary authorities. Two approaches used to explore the determinants of inflation were discussed.
Tunisia
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Context. On June 7, 2013, the Executive Board approved a 24-month SBA in an amount equivalent to 400 percent of quota (SDR 1.15 billion or about $1.75 billion). To date, SDR 427.92 equivalent to $659 million has been disbursed. The pillars of the program are to: (i) achieve short-term macroeconomic stability; (ii) lay the foundation for stronger and more inclusive growth; and (iii) protect the most vulnerable. Background. The adoption of a new constitution and the formation of a new technocratic government in January 2014 led to greater confidence on political prospects and economic reforms. Growth has been moderate and remains insufficient to bring down unemployment signif...
Food policies and obesity in low and middle income countries
Understanding the public health implication of fiscal policies is crucial to combat recently increasing overweight and obesity rates in many low-and-middle income countries (LMICs). This study examines the implication of food policies, mainly tariff rates on “unhealthy” foods, including sugar and confectionery products as well as fats and oils, and governments’ subsidies on individuals’ body weight outcomes. We compile several macro- and micro-level datasets that provide for several LMICs macro-level information on food policies and micro-level anthropometric data. We exploit temporal dynamics in tariff rates on “unhealthy” foods and governments’ spending on subsidies to estima...
Regional Economic Outlook, October 2014, Middle East and Central Asia,
This issue discusses economic developments in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (MENAP), which continue to reflect the diversity of conditions prevailing across the region. Most high-income oil exporters, primarily in the GCC, continue to record steady growth and solid economic and financial fundamentals, albeit with medium-term challenges that need to be addressed. In contrast, other countries—Iraq, Libya, and Syria—are mired in conflicts with not only humanitarian but also economic consequences. And yet other countries, mostly oil importers, are making continued but uneven progress in advancing their economic agendas, often in tandem with political transitions and amidst difficult social conditions. In most of these countries, without extensive economic and structural reforms, economic prospects for the medium term remain insufficient to reduce high unemployment and improve living standards.
