This chapter explores the key relationships between participatory democracy and successful economic development and reviews the early steps of participatory decision making in Ghana. More generally, it sets the stage for a discussion of Ghana's main achievements and failures since 1992 in...

China's economic performance hs been remarkable since the the reform process began 15 years ago. Notwithstanding the achievements that have been made, a number of serious problems remain. This papers discusses the current reform program and the effors being made to overcome the structural...

This paper examines Hungary's reforms since 1968. It discusses the government's medium-term adjustment program, unveiled in the fall of 1990, which aims to install the key elements of a market economy in three years

Kuwait has made an impressive recovery from the damage and disruptions caused by the Iraqi invasion in 1990, as evidenced by the restoration of basic economic and social services, the recovery of the oil sector, the rehabilitation of infrastructure, and the steady reduction in the fiscal and...

China encountered problems preserving economic stability while pursuing reforms aimed at increasing its economic flexibility and efficiency. This paper examines China's experience with market-oriented reforms since 1978, offering lessons for other centrally planned economies in the midst of...

Government spending on infrastructure has recently increased sharply in many emerging-market economies. This paper examines the mechanism through which public infrastructure spending affects the dynamics of the real exchange rate. Using a two-sector dependent open economy model with...

News - or foresight - about future economic fundamentals can create rational expectations equilibria with non-fundamental representations that pose substantial challenges to econometric efforts to recover the structural shocks to which economic agents react. Using tax policies as a leading...

This paper studies how the effects of government spending vary with the economic environment. Using a panel of OECD countries, we identify fiscal shocks as residuals from an estimated spending rule and trace their macroeconomic impact under different conditions regarding the exchange rate...

This paper develops a structural macroeconometric model of the world economy, disaggregated into thirty five national economies. This panel unobserved components model features a monetary transmission mechanism, a fiscal transmission mechanism, and extensive macrofinancial linkages, both within...

Strengthening fiscal frameworks, in particular fiscal rules, has emerged as a key response to the fiscal legacy of the crisis. This paper takes stock of fiscal rules in use around the world, compiles a dataset - covering national and supranational fiscal rules, in 81 countries from 1985 to...