Tax expenditures are concessions that fall outside tax norms or benchmarks. These norms include accounting conventions, the structure of tax rates, the deductibility of compulsory payments, provisions to facilitate tax administration, and norms related to international fiscal obligations. Tax...

Institutional and Governance Reviews (IGRs) are a new tool in the Bank's package of analytical and advisory activities (see PREMnote 75). Because they are politically sensitive, the development of these reviews involves careful tradeoffs. Though each requires thorough analysis of a country's...

About 90 percent of the world's nearly 200 sovereign states have national legislatures or parliaments. With the spread of democracy and the rise of multiparty political systems, these bodies are playing larger roles in government. Increasingly, legislatures and their members perform four...

The note shows how Thailand's efforts to ease budget controls, can complement efforts to strengthen the capabilities of government agencies. The country's budget reform strategy, while seeking to retain the benefits of tight central control, aims at avoiding its costs, by transferring control...

The note assesses how the volume, distribution, structure, and objectives of Bank lending for civil service reform have changed in recent years. Bank operations in civil service reform usually refers to interventions that affect the organization, performance, and working conditions of employees...

The note focuses on experiences in rural India, showing that information and communications technology (ICT) can enhance poor people's opportunities, by improving access to markets, as well as health care. Furthermore, it can empower them by expanding their use of government services, including...

Securitization of future hard currency receivables, that is, converting them into tradable securities, can allow developing country borrowers with good credit to overcome sovereign credit ceilings, and raise financing in international capital markets. The note examines the case of PEMEX,...

Fiscal policy plays a big role in currency crises - before, and after they occur. Thus policymakers should not underestimate the importance of fiscal policy: a) the realization of large contingent liabilities can quickly, and dramatically alter government finances, leading to a currency crisis;...

Successful trade policy reform, often requires customs reform. In the 1990s Morocco's trade policies were strongly influenced by its agreement with the European Union, with the World Trade Center, and the Multi-fiber Agreement, which led the Customs and Indirect Taxes Administration to examine...

Although attention has focused on public sector initiatives to fight corruption on the demand side, private companies in every region have developed programs to fight it on the supply side. Policymakers and advocacy groups-such as Transparency International-consider such preventive efforts to be...