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Fiscal Decentralization Improves Social Outcomes When Countries Have Good Governance
Does fiscal decentralization improve health and educational outcomes? Does this improvement depend on the quality of governance? How do fiscal decentralization and governance interact? We answer these questions through an instrumental variable Tobit analysis of cross-country panel data. We find negative effects of fiscal decentralization on health outcomes, which however are more than offset by better governance. Education expenditure decentralization to subnational governments enhances educational outcomes. We conclude that countries can only reap the benefits from decentralization when the quality of their governance arrangements exceeds a certain threshold. We also find that sequencing and staging of decentralization matter. Countries should improve government effectiveness and control of corruption first to maximize benefits of fiscal decentralization.
How Geography and Institutions Shaped the Development of Nations
This book provides a concise and informative introduction to how geography and institutions shaped the development of nations, showing that while the role of institutions for the development of nations is indisputable, the role of geographic factors remains underexplored and underestimated. Drawing on rich empirical material from the history and modernity of different continents and nations, How Geography and Institutions Shaped the Development of Nations: Across Countries and Continents seeks to show not only the importance of geographical explanations of development but also their extraordinary diversity. This book is divided into two parts. The first part examines the main contributions t...
Namibia
Namibia has shown resilience to the negative shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Output has recovered to the pre pandemic level, inflation has fallen below 6 percent, and expectations remain anchored. Official reserves, at 4.7 month of imports in September, exhibit adequacy consistent with the peg to the rand. Prospects are brightened with discovery of oil and gas reserves. At the same time, Namibia is poised to benefit from the global pivot to green energy through its signature Green Hydrogen Project. Meanwhile, the challenge of improving public sector efficiency and reducing the large wage bill, not only for the sake of preserving debt sustainability, but also for the Namibian people to benefit the most from these new developments, remains paramount. Elections are scheduled for 2024.
Avoid a Fall Or Fly Again: Turning Points of State Fragility
High persistence of state fragility (a fragility trap) suggests the presence of substantial benefits from avoiding a fall into fragility and considerable hurdles to successful exit from fragility. This paper empirically examines the factors that affect the turning points of entering and exiting from state fragility by employing three different approaches: an event study, the synthetic control method, and a logit model. We find that avoiding economic contraction is critical to prevent a country on the brink of fragility from falling into fragility (e.g., among near fragile countries, the probability of entering fragility would rise by 40 percentage points should real GDP per capita growth dec...
IMF Engagement on Health Spending Issues in Surveillance and Program Work
IMF country teams have become increasingly engaged on health spending issues in surveillance and program work, and more so since the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary objectives of health spending are to improve health outcomes and provide protection to households against high financial costs of health care. The Fund’s engagement on health spending issues is guided by an assessment of its macro-criticality, with the scope and purpose of engagement varying across countries and depending on whether it occurs in surveillance or program contexts. This technical note discusses how to assess the macro-criticality of health spending and reviews appropriate policy responses. The design and implementation of macro-critical health reforms often require specific sectoral knowledge and experience. Thus, this note emphasizes the importance of collaborating with development partners on health policy issues.
Closing Peru's Ethnic Gaps Amidst Sustained Economic Growth
We analyze the recent evolution of ethnic economic inequality in Peru, a major source of social discontent in the country. Household survey data indicates that recent decades of high output growth also witnessed a substantial narrowing of socioeconomic gaps among ethnicities. Most notably, the Mestizo ethnic group surpassed the White group in income per capita, and Native American also experienced a relative improvement. Mincerian regression analysis suggests that the main contributors to these developments were rural-to-urban migration and increased education. Based on our statistical findings, we propose enhancing education and other public services, increasing government revenues, lowering informality, and promoting competition as the main public policies that could accelerate the ongoing narrowing of ethnic gaps.
Self Portrait in Green
'NDiaye is a hypnotic storyteller with an unflinching understanding of the rock-bottom reality of most people's life.' New York Times ' One of France's most exciting prose stylists.' The Guardian. Obsessed by her encounters with the mysterious green women, and haunted by the Garonne River, a nameless narrator seeks them out in La Roele, Paris, Marseille, and Ouagadougou. Each encounter reveals different aspects of the women; real or imagined, dead or alive, seductive or suicidal, driving the narrator deeper into her obsession, in this unsettling exploration of identity, memory and paranoia. Self Portrait in Green is the multi-prize winning, Marie NDiaye's brilliant subversion of the memoir. Written in diary entries, with lyrical prose and dreamlike imagery, we start with and return to the river, which mirrors the narrative by posing more questions than it answers.
Joint IMF-WBG Staff Note: DSSI Fiscal Monitoring Update
The COVID-19 pandemic put significant pressures on fiscal accounts during 2020 through a contraction of revenues and increased spending needs to tackle the pandemic and its economic fallout. In response to these pressures, the countries benefitting from the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) have faced difficult choices to reprioritize spending, especially capital spending, even as they allowed higher overall fiscal deficits. This note summarizes the findings from the update of the fiscal monitoring system for the COVID-19 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). The DSSI was endorsed by the G20 Finance Ministers on April 15, 2020 and extended twice in October 2020 (until end-June 2021) and April 2021 (until end-2021). During May–December 2020 (the first phase), 43 countries participated, and 42 countries have formally requested their participation in the initiative during January–June 2021 (the second phase, as of July 30, 2021).
Chicanas of 18th Street
Overflowing with powerful testimonies of six female community activists who have lived and worked in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, Chicanas of 18th Street reveals the convictions and approaches of those organizing for social reform. In chronicling a pivotal moment in the history of community activism in Chicago, the women discuss how education, immigration, religion, identity, and acculturation affected the Chicano movement. Chicanas of 18th Street underscores the hierarchies of race, gender, and class while stressing the interplay of individual and collective values in the development of community reform. Highlighting the women's motivations, initiatives, and experiences in politics during the 1960s and 1970s, these rich personal accounts reveal the complexity of the Chicano movement, conflicts within the movement, and the importance of teatro and cultural expressions to the movement. Also detailed are vital interactions between members of the Chicano movement with leftist and nationalist community members and the influence of other activist groups such as African Americans and Marxists.
About Trees
About Trees considers our relationship with language, landscape, perception, and memory in the Anthropocene. The book includes texts and artwork by a stellar line up of contributors including Jorge Luis Borges, Andrea Bowers, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ada Lovelace and dozens of others. Holten was artist in residence at Buro BDP. While working on the book she created an alphabet and used it to make a new typeface called Trees. She also made a series of limited edition offset prints based on her Tree Drawings.
