This paper assesses recent theorising and empirical evidence on the impact of fiscal policy—taxes, public expenditures and budget deficits—on long-run growth. It considers the relevance of recent advances in growth theory for low-income countries and compares the evidence for low-income countries with that for middleand highincome (OECD) countries. Recent advances in endogenous growth theory ha...

In a passive monetary and active fiscal policy regime, changes in the value of public debt generate wealth effects on households. Then, in contrast to the active monetary and passive fiscal policy regime, inflation moves oppositely from the inflation target and a stronger reaction of interest rates to inflation increases the response of inflation to shocks. Moreover, a higher level of public de...

Global materials use is expected to grow in the coming decades absence of new policies, bearing substantial negative impacts for environment. This report analyses mechanisms through which resource efficiency and circular economy policies can achieve a decoupling between economic growth material use. Using OECD’s ENV-Linkages model, examines environmental global fiscal reform, implements taxes o...

Fiscal instruments are potentially among the most effective, and cost-effective, options for addressing externalities related to poor air quality, urban road congestion, and greenhouse gases. This paper takes a case study, focused on Mauritius (a pioneer in the use of green taxes) to illustrate how existing taxes, especially on fuels and vehicles, could be reformed to better address these exter...

Background: Cigarette taxation has been perceived by academics and policy-makers as one of the most effective ways of reducing the use of cigarettes. On January 1 2002, the Taiwan government imposed a New Taiwan (NT) $5 per pack tax earmarked for the purpose of tobacco control. This study uses a survey collected prior to taxation to assess public attitudes toward cigarette taxation, public beli...

The way a health system is organized and financed is one of the key determinants of whether it provides equitable access to essential health care and improves population health. Financing is important as it determines access to and availability of health care, and the level of protection against catastrophic costs of illness. In lowand middle-income countries, financing becomes a central issue ...

How should countries cooperate in setting fiscal and trade policies when government expenditures must be financed with distorting taxes? We show that even if cannot make explicit transfers to each other, every point on the Pareto frontier is production efficient, so international capital flows effectively free. Trade agreements supplemented policy agreements. Residence-based income tax systems ...

The paper examines the issues around mobilization of resources for the 11 countries of the South-East Asia Region of the World Health Organization (WHO), by analysing their macroeconomic situation, health spending, fiscal space and other determinants of health. With the exception of a few, most of these countries have made fair progress on their own Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets of ...