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The rising reliance on testing in American education and for licensure and certification has been accompanied by an escalation in cheating on tests at all levels. Edited by two of the foremost experts on the subject, the Handbook of Quantitative Methods for Detecting Cheating on Tests offers a comprehensive compendium of increasingly sophisticated data forensics used to investigate whether or not cheating has occurred. Written for practitioners, testing professionals, and scholars in testing, measurement, and assessment, this volume builds on the claim that statistical evidence often requires less of an inferential leap to conclude that cheating has taken place than do other, more common sou...
This paper develops a full-fledged cost-benefit analysis of monetary integration, and applies it to the currency unions actively pursued in Africa. The benefits of monetary union come from a more credible monetary policy, while the costs derive from real shock asymmetries and fiscal disparities. The model is calibrated using African data. Simulations indicate that the proposed EAC, ECOWAS, and SADC monetary unions bring about net benefits to some potential members, but modest net gains and sometimes net losses for others. Strengthening domestic macroeconomic frameworks is shown to provide some of the same improvements as monetary integration, reducing the latter’s relative attractiveness.
Takes an in-depth look at twenty-six economic and social development successes in Sub-Saharan African countries, and addresses how these countries have overcome major developmental challenges.
This Selected Issues paper takes stock of structural reforms in Portugal from a firm-level perspective. Structural reforms were the main available policy tool to mend Portugal’s accumulated imbalances. Portugal’s macroeconomic toolbox was severely constrained by monetary union membership and spillover considerations. This paper discusses what structural reforms were supposed to achieve at the firm level. It documents a few stylized facts about Portuguese firms and describes the structural reform agenda. The paper also reports the results of a firm survey on the perceived effectiveness of the structural reforms.
In 2011, following years of large-scale external imbalances financed by debt, Portugal’s economy reached a crisis point. To restore economic growth and credibility with international lenders, the country embarked on a difficult path of fiscal adjustment and structural reforms. By many metrics, Portugal’s 2011–14 macroeconomic stabilization program has been a success, but going forward Portugal would benefit from policies to reduce vulnerabilities, absorb labor slack, and generate sustainable growth.
Monetary and fiscal easing, together with specific interventions under the Economic Rescue Plan, helped contain the immediate impact of the global crisis, but private sector recovery remains nascent. Inflation, persistently high during 2009 owing to large increases in food prices, has declined to single-digit levels. Revenues continue to underperform relative to the budget, resulting in a modest scaling back in expenditure to limit deterioration of the fiscal deficit. Monetary policy has produced a low interest rate environment, but private sector credit growth has slowed sharply.
Growth in much of Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to remain strong, driven by efforts to invest in infrastructure and strong agricultural production. The current Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone is exacting a heavy toll, with spillovers to neighboring countries. External threats to the region's overall positive outlook include global financial conditions and a slowdown in emerging market growth.
Tanzania has weathered the adverse shocks of recent years relatively well. Revenue collection for 2010–11 has fallen short of targets, constraining public spending and contributing to the emergence of arrears. Monetary policy has become less accommodative. The near-term economic outlook is subject to a higher-than-average degree of uncertainty with a rising risk of donor aid shortfalls and higher international fuel prices. Over the medium term, growth could gradually rise to 71⁄2 percent––thanks to large investments in mining and continued growth in the non-mining economy.
An exploration of the implications of mineral-led wealth and the opportunities that this creates for economic and social development. The book includes theoretical and policy analyses as well as micro level country case studies, including Norway, Chile, Indonesia, Nigeria and Botswana.
This 2013 Article IV Consultation highlights that Montenegro’s recovery from the collapse of the lending boom in 2008 has been slowed by the debt overhang that remains in the private sector. Output contracted in 2012 because of unusually severe winter weather early in the year, as well as a sharp decline in aluminum production as the financial position of the troubled aluminum company (KAP) continued to worsen. Activity picked up in early 2013 as more favorable weather conditions resulted in a sharp increase in hydro-based electricity production. A sustained, multi-year fiscal consolidation effort is needed to reduce the public debt burden to an appropriately low level in the medium term.