PREM Notes

176 items available

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https://hdl.handle.net/10986/9424

This note series is intended to summarize good practices and key policy findings on poverty reduction and economic management (PREM) topics.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 108

Leveling or Mining the Playing Field? Implementation Problems of Carbon-Motivated Border Adjustment Taxes
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-12) Jensen, Michael Friis
Climate change policies and trade policy are on a collision course. Border tax adjustments are at the center of the debate and are being considered in many Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, notably the United States and the European Union (EU). They will tax carbon emissions at the border with the aim of leveling the playing field between countries with different carbon emission limits. Border tax adjustments may be justified theoretically, but the challenges of implementation and its associated costs and incentives are a key determinant of the outcome. Implementation depends on complex administrative arrangements and controversial calculations of the embedded carbon in imported goods. Border tax adjustment schemes might mine rather than level the playing field. Implementation problems invite vested interests to influence the policy process and divert border adjustment taxes towards protectionist uses. Decision makers and academics alike have produced little evidence on implementation problems but appear to discuss the very complex border tax adjustment scheme with the implicit assumption that implementation problems can be solved if the need arises. The implementation problems are linked to the difficulties of calculating embedded carbon. This paper discusses a key question: how accurately can we measure embedded carbon and what will the inherent uncertainty do to trade policy when it triggers political economy forces?
Implementing Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys for Results : Lessons from a Decade of Global Experience
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-11) Gurkan, Asli; Kaiser, Kai; Voorbraak, Doris
Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) can serve as a powerful tool to inform prevailing public financial management (PFM) practices and the extent to which government budgets link to execution and desired service delivery objectives and beneficiaries. Since the first PETS in Uganda in 1996, tracking exercises have now been conducted in over two dozen other countries, often as part of core analytical and advisory work related to PFM. This note synthesizes the findings and lessons from a number of recent PETS stocktaking exercises and indicates their potential benefits for enriching PFM and sectoral policy dialogues in a variety of country settings. Key findings include: (i) PETS have proven to be useful as part of a broader policy strategy aimed at improving service delivery results; (ii) PETS has become a brand name for very different instruments, but at its core there is a survey methodology that requires skilled technical expertise and a solid knowledge of budget execution processes; (iii) policy impact in a variety of PETS experiences could be further strengthened by stronger country ownership and effective follow-up; and (iv) the Bank could enhance PETS results through strategic partnering, and greater emphasis on dissemination and communication strategies aimed at involving actors who can foster actions on the ground.
The Pattern of Antidumping and Other Types of Contingent Protection
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-10) Bown, Chad P.
Many of the major economies in the multilateral, rules-based trading system find themselves in a situation in which their applied tariff rates are quite close to the tariff binding levels that form their legal commitments at the World Trade Organization (WTO). This implies that they cannot simply raise applied tariff rates to respond to domestic industry demands for additional trade barriers to protect them from imports. One of the fundamental and potentially WTO-legal ways in which national governments can respond to domestic industry calls for additional protection from imports is by resorting to trade 'remedy' policy instruments such as antidumping, safeguards, and countervailing duty (anti-subsidy) policies. This note, which describes newly collected data made available through the World Bank-sponsored global antidumping database, reports on the combined use of such policies, comprehensively collected across the major WTO member economies.
Gender, Entry Regulations, and Small Firm Informality : What Do the Micro Data Tell Us?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-09) McKenzie, David
Informality is pervasive in many developing countries, where the majority of businesses do not register. One view, linked strongly with Hernando de Soto and the International Finance Corporations (IFC's) doing business project, is that the informal sector consists of potential entrepreneurs who remain small as the administrative and financial costs of becoming formal prevent firms from formalizing, but that formalization is needed to obtain access to finance, and have the incentive to grow without fear of government inspectors. Moreover, it is often argued further that the burden of regulation is even larger for female business owners, because they have less time and money to overcome expensive and time-consuming barriers to registration. As a result, doing business 2008 claims that the benefits of business regulation reform are especially high for women, and shows that across countries there is a positive association between the percentage of entrepreneurs who are women and the ease of doing business. This note largely focuses on the implications for micro and very small enterprises in urban areas, which comprise most businesses in developing countries. Almost all rural firms are informal.
Breaking into New Markets, Raising Quality, and Improving Services : Neglected Avenues for Export Diversification
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-09) Walkenhorst, Peter; Brenton, Paul
Expanding international trade is an important avenue for growth and development in low-income countries. In addition to increasing the quantity of existing export flows, many countries seek to diversify into production and export activities that provide a higher return to the labor and capital resources employed. Export diversity also reduces a country's vulnerability to pronounced price swings in international markets. This note reviews the findings of a series of papers on the diversification process contained in Newfarmer, Shaw, and Walkenhorst (2009). The analysis suggests that there has been too much focus on simply adding new products to export portfolios, which often underscores the use of industrial policies. While such actions are important, a more comprehensive view of diversification, and hence a more comprehensive trade policy, is needed that improves the quality of existing exports, breaks into new geographic markets, and increases services exports.
The Global Financial Crisis : Comparisons with the Great Depression and Scenarios for Recovery
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-08) Brahmbhatt, Milan; Da Silva, Luiz Pereira
A recent paper has highlighted some close correspondences between economic performance during the present world recession and that during the early months of the great depression that began in late 1929. World industrial production from April 2008 to April 2009 fell as rapidly as during the first year of the great depression, while stock market prices and world trade volumes have fallen more rapidly than in the comparable period. These comparisons lead Eichengreen and O'Rourke to draw the alarming conclusion that 'it's a depression alright.' They note, however, that fiscal and monetary policies are likely to be much more supportive of economic activity in the next 1-2 years than they were during the first few years of the great depression. The first part of this note outlines some other important structural differences between the world economy today and in the 1930s that are likely to affect how the present recession plays out relative to the great depression. The second part of the note discusses possible recovery paths out of the current crisis.
Managing Trade Policy During the Economic Crisis
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-07) Saez, Sebastian
The global economic crisis has triggered rapid responses by governments worldwide to counteract its domestic effects, through fiscal stimulus packages, expansionary monetary policies, and financial bailouts. Ad hoc trade policy measures are increasingly being put in place. All countries share the responsibility of preserving a stable and predictable trade policy environment. To this end, trade policies must contribute to maintaining an open trading system consistent with World Trade Organization (WTO) principles. With the sharp decline in global merchandise trade volumes, expected to fall by 9 percent in 2009, countries have resorted to an array of measures to counter the detrimental effects of the crisis on their respective economies. Because this decline is a consequence of a deterioration of global demand, trade measures are not an effective response to this problem. On the contrary, policies that contribute to an open and stable trading system are the best policy option for the world community, especially in the current context.
Trade-Related Policy Responses to the Crisis : A Stock Taking
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-07) Evenett, Simon; Hoekman, Bernard; Cattaneo, Olivier
The world is facing the most severe global economic crisis since the great depression of the 1930s. For the first time since World War two, World Bank projections for annual economic growth show that world gross domestic product (GDP) will decline 2.9 percent in 2009 and growth in developing countries will fall to 1.2 percent from 5.9 percent in 2008. Excluding China and India, other developing nations' economies will shrink on average by 1.6 percent. Net private capital flows to developing countries will likely turn negative in 2009 a more than $800 billion drop from the 2007 peak. The decline in global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows that started in 2008 will deepen and spread to the developing world, with overall inflows projected to fall some 30 percent compared to 2008, the first time FDI has fallen more than 10 percent in a year since 1986. The value of remittances, perhaps the most stable source of external financing for developing countries, is expected to drop by at least 5 percent this year.
Taxing Business
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-06) Bird, Richard M.
Economists are sometimes accused of agreeing on almost nothing. An important policy question on which many economists appear to agree, however, is that there is not much to be said in favor of taxing business and especially not internationally mobile corporations. The reason for such unanimity is primarily the substantial economic costs associated with business taxes, although the uncertainty as to whom really 'pays' such taxes in terms of their final incidence may also contribute to the disdain in which they are generally held by economists. But the world largely ignores conventional economic wisdom: people everywhere seems delighted to load as much of their tax burden as possible on "business" and particularly on large impersonal corporations.
The Personal Income Tax
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-06) Bird, Richard M.
A recent paper argues persuasively that the two basic pillars of taxation in most countries are the income tax and the VAT (Barreix and Roca 2007). The authors argue that the VAT is excellent as a revenue raiser and works best if it is applied in the simplest and most neutral fashion possible that is, on as broad a base as possible and preferably at a uniform rate. Given the relative unimportance of personal income taxes in most developing countries this argument is at first sight perhaps somewhat surprising. Personal income tax (PIT) revenues are often three to four times corporate tax revenues in developed countries, but in developing countries corporate tax revenues usually substantially exceed PIT revenues. As a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), PIT revenues in developed countries average about seven percent of GDP as compared to about two percent for developing countries. Moreover, as Bird and Zolt (2005) note, in many developing countries personal income taxes often amount to little more than taxes on labor income. At the same time, although little revenue is received from capital income, income taxes often impose high marginal effective rates on investment and hence discourage growth.