Kosovo has embarked on a journey of digital transformation, developing digital infrastructure to provide access to households, companies, and educational institutions and modernizing its public finance system through GovTech. Digitalization and GovTech can facilitate Kosovo leapfrogging into...

The connection between public spending and the ambitions of urban elites is a common topic in the historiography of the late Middle Ages. However, it is still unclear how city finances and private capital interacted before the use of sophisticated financial systems of the late 13 th to early 14...

At just under £8 billion, spending on schools and childcare is the second-largest area of public service spending in Scotland, behind spending on health. While councils rather than the Scottish Government itself determine how much to spend on schools, they do so in the context of a funding and...

Ghana's development path, although registering past successes, faces a series of current and future challenges. Ghana succeeded inhalving its poverty rate between 1991 and 2016, from 87 percent (US$3.65 per day in 2017 purchasing power parity [PPP]) to about 50 percent of the population,...

Eswatini's fundamental policy challenge is to address the longstanding factors that have constrained growth and hindered broad-based improvements in living standards. Given the state's significant role in the economy, the build-up of macro imbalances, and slow improvements in social indicators,...

The Subnational public finance report is the first in a series of World Bank reports that analyze local and regional government fiscal and financial developments in Croatia. The objective of this work is to offer policy advice on improving public service delivery in a fiscally efficient and...

How can Zimbabwe create the necessary fiscal space to absorb quasi-fiscal expenditures, reverse its upward trend in public debt, and support macroeconomic stability? Zimbabwe is faced with an unsustainable and growing stock of public debt. To service this debt, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)...

Armenia has made significant progress in its development journey by improving its ability towithstand shocks and becoming an upper-middle-income country in 2018. Armenia's GDP per capita more than doubled between 2017 and 2023, to USD 8,053 (current prices) despite several shocks including the...

The 22nd post-programme surveillance mission to Spain took place, in virtual format, on 2 and 4 October 2024. The meetings involved staff from the European Commission, in liaison with European Central Bank staff. European Stability Mechanism staff participated on aspects related to its Early...

The 21st post-programme surveillance mission to Ireland took place from 18 to 20 September 2024. This mission involved European Commission staff in liaison with European Central Bank staff. European Stability Mechanism (ESM) staff participated on aspects relating to its Early Warning System.

The 20th post-programme surveillance mission to Portugal took place from 30 September to 1 October 2024. This mission involved European Commission staff in liaison with European Central Bank staff. European Stability Mechanism (ESM) staff participated on aspects relating to its Early Warning System.

The fifth post-programme surveillance mission to Greece took place from 8 to 11 October 2024. It involved European Commission staff in liaison with European Central Bank staff. European Stability Mechanism staff participated on aspects relating to its Early Warning System. Staff from the...

The 17th post-programme surveillance mission to Cyprus took place from 30 September to 7 October 2024. This mission involved European Commission staff in liaison with European Central Bank (ECB) staff. European Stability Mechanism (ESM) staff participated on aspects relating to the ESM's Early...

This paper measures the efficiency of public spending in the education and health sectors using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). It covers all EU Member States from 2000 to 2022. The model uses panel data and accounts for country-specific factors such as...

During the last decade Cambodia succeeded in achieving significant domestic resource mobilization which in turn enabled a rapid expansion of social spending. During the next decade it should shift from spending more to spending better. This Public Finance Review (PFR) informs the next phase of...

In this report, we analyse the financial health and challenges facing colleges in England. This covers all further education colleges, including sixth form colleges. There are currently 218 colleges in England, which offer a wide range of academic and vocational programmes to both young people...

This report has been drawn up in accordance with Article 63 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1727 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 on the EU Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) (henceforth, "Eurojust Regulation" or "EJR"), replacing and repealing Council...

This study quantifies the direct average net fiscal impact (ANFI) of migration in Germany, taking into account both indirect taxes and in-kind benefits such as health and education spending. Using a status quo approach with data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for 2018 and...

This paper presents a detailed analysis of fiscal frameworks across the six Western Balkan economies utilizing a newly compiled dataset based on the European Commission's Fiscal Governance Database. The analysis reveals that although all six Western Balkan countries have implemented some form of...

Gender budgeting is a public financial management (PFM) tool, used to ensure accountability mechanisms. The analysis of "process" indicators of gender-responsive PFM (GRPFM) reveals that India has been successful in integrating a gender lens within the budget cycle, including in the financial...

English councils saw big cuts to their funding during the 2010s, with spending on some services down between 40% and 70% over the decade. And although like virtually all public services, funding for local government was increased during the 2019-24 parliament, councils' finances are still under...

We use novel German survey data to investigate how perceptions and information about public finances influence attitudes towards public debt and fiscal rules. On average, people strongly underestimate the debt-to-GDP ratio, overestimate the interest-to-tax-revenue ratio and favor a tighter...

Incentivizing innovation through buyouts may alleviate the social costs associated with patent power, but the political economy and feasibility of this potentially important financing mechanism have been understudied. We study an international setting of countries with different innovation and...

Health spending, and the performance of the NHS, will feature prominently in the upcoming general election campaign. Many different factors matter for NHS performance and for the wider health of the population, but one important factor is the level of spending on health services. In this IFS...

Global public debt is elevated. It is projected to exceed US$100 trillion in 2024 and will rise over the medium term. This chapter shows that risks to the debt outlook are heavily tilted to the upside. In a severely adverse scenario, global debt is estimated to be nearly 20 percentage points of...

Lack of convergence in per capita income across Indian states requires greater resources for lower-income states for investment and improved public services. Central and state governments need to raise revenue (both tax and non-tax), dismantle the administered pricing mechanism, reduce...

This paper seeks to guide the reform of fiscal frameworks in Asia-Pacific in the context of calls for a more active fiscal policy in a shock-prone world. It highlights that the cost of fiscal support is large and that fiscal frameworks, including fiscal rules, are being put to the test given the...