Fiscal Policy in Developing Countries: A Synoptic View

Macroeconomics of fiscal policy in developing countries

This paper considers some aspects of the effects of fiscal policy on macroeconomic adjustment in developing countries. First, the paper reviews the notion of the fiscal deficit in the particular context of developing countries. It then spells out the conditions under which the internal and external debts are sustainable and points out the role of the “twin deficits”. The paper then presents som...

International Reserves and Fiscal Policy in Developing Countries

This paper investigates empirically the relationship between the pattern of fiscal policy and the demand for international reserves in developing countries, and how this relationship is associated with political risk and conditional access to global capital markets. It finds evidence that for developing countries with low political risk, countercyclical (procyclical) fiscal policies are associa...

Fiscal Transparency and Fiscal Policy Outcomes in Oecd Countries

It is widely believed and often argued that budget process transparency has large, positive effects on fiscal performance. However, the evidence linking transparency and fiscal policy outcomes is far from compelling. We modify the "debt as precommitment" model of Alesina and Tabellini (1990) by allowing for budget inertia and reputational costs. These modest changes produce an equilibrium level...

Fiscal Impact of Privatization in Developing Countries

Fiscal Policy and Macroeconomic Uncertainty in Developing Countries: The Tale of the Tormented Insurer

Governments in emerging markets often behave like a “tormented insurer”, trying to use non-state-contingent debt instruments to avoid cuts in payments to private agents despite large fluctuations in public revenues. In the data, average public debt-GDP ratios decline as the variability of revenues increases, primary balances and current expenditures follow cyclical patterns sharply at odds with...