Publication: Ecuador - Creating Fiscal Space for Poverty Reduction : A Fiscal Management and Public Expenditure Review, Volume 1. Main Report
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2004-11-17
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2013-07-23
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The report, a joint effort by the Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, seeks to provide the Ecuadorian authorities with a comprehensive account of both institutions' diagnoses and recommendations in the area of fiscal management and public expenditure. This report consists of two volumes. Volume I examines whether, and how, the core goals of public expenditure management, i.e., balanced fiscal aggregates, resource allocations to strategic sectors, and equity and microeconomic efficiency of public spending are met in Ecuador. Volume II presents sector studies on fiscal sustainability, the fiscal rules, education, health, pensions, water and sanitation, electricity, telecommunications, and oil, including the results of a national teachers tracking survey, as it concerns the education sector. It focuses on the main themes that are critical to Ecuador's fiscal consolidation and poverty reduction following dollarization. In most cases, it does provide choices for key policy questions, and, provides an independent analysis of the selected areas where both Banks are specifically involved, and a set of possible recommendations to address them. Volume I, in particular, correctly identifies fiscal vulnerabilities in the new context of dollarization, and proposes an adequate fiscal management that increases expenditure flexibility, develops budget management reform, increases public (social) investment, and brings transparency to public expenditure. All this is supported by an implicit proposal for a Fiscal Pact for Poverty Reduction. For its part, Volume II deals with sectoral policies and their link to fiscal management. It identifies the most efficient and cost-effective interventions in the social sectors, while making an optimal use of the reduced and available fiscal space. The study also recognizes the importance of political constraints, and the difficulties of setting steady rules in a non-cooperative game among national political actors that are particularly reflected in budget allocations. It correctly emphasizes the need to bring full transparency of information on the management of public accounts among all domestic actors, as a starting point for sectoral reform. The study should contribute to align fiscal and institutional policies in the social and basic infrastructure sectors, and to strengthen them in the context of the ongoing negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, while preserving difficult domestic equilibria on the development agenda.
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“World Bank. 2004. Ecuador - Creating Fiscal Space for Poverty Reduction : A Fiscal Management and Public Expenditure Review, Volume 1. Main Report. Public expenditure review (PER);. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14515 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Creating Fiscal Space for Poverty Reduction in Ecuador : A Fiscal Management and Public - Expenditure Review(Washington, DC: World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, 2005)This report consists of two volumes. Volume I examines whether, and how, the core goals of public expenditure management, i.e., balanced fiscal aggregates, resource allocations to strategic sectors, and equity and microeconomic efficiency of public spending are met in Ecuador. Volume II presents sector studies on fiscal sustainability, the fiscal rules, education, health, pensions, the results of a national teachers tracking survey, water and sanitation, electricity, telecommunications and oil. Volume II deals with sectoral policies, and their link to fiscal management. It identifies the most efficient and cost-effective interventions in the social sectors, while making an optimal use of the reduced and available fiscal space. The study also recognizes the importance of political constraints, and the difficulties of setting steady rules in a non-cooperative game among national political actors that are particularly reflected in budget allocations.Publication Ecuador - Creating Fiscal Space for Poverty Reduction : A Fiscal Management and Public Expenditure Review, Volume 2. Background Papers(Washington, DC, 2004-11-17)The report, a joint effort by the Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, seeks to provide the Ecuadorian authorities with a comprehensive account of both institutions' diagnoses and recommendations in the area of fiscal management and public expenditure. This report consists of two volumes. Volume I examines whether, and how, the core goals of public expenditure management, i.e., balanced fiscal aggregates, resource allocations to strategic sectors, and equity and microeconomic efficiency of public spending are met in Ecuador. Volume II presents sector studies on fiscal sustainability, the fiscal rules, education, health, pensions, water and sanitation, electricity, telecommunications, and oil, including the results of a national teachers tracking survey, as it concerns the education sector. It focuses on the main themes that are critical to Ecuador's fiscal consolidation and poverty reduction following dollarization. In most cases, it does provide choices for key policy questions, and, provides an independent analysis of the selected areas where both Banks are specifically involved, and a set of possible recommendations to address them. Volume I, in particular, correctly identifies fiscal vulnerabilities in the new context of dollarization, and proposes an adequate fiscal management that increases expenditure flexibility, develops budget management reform, increases public (social) investment, and brings transparency to public expenditure. All this is supported by an implicit proposal for a Fiscal Pact for Poverty Reduction. For its part, Volume II deals with sectoral policies and their link to fiscal management. It identifies the most efficient and cost-effective interventions in the social sectors, while making an optimal use of the reduced and available fiscal space. The study also recognizes the importance of political constraints, and the difficulties of setting steady rules in a non-cooperative game among national political actors that are particularly reflected in budget allocations. It correctly emphasizes the need to bring full transparency of information on the management of public accounts among all domestic actors, as a starting point for sectoral reform. The study should contribute to align fiscal and institutional policies in the social and basic infrastructure sectors, and to strengthen them in the context of the ongoing negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, while preserving difficult domestic equilibria on the development agenda.Publication South Asia Economic Focus, June 2012: Creating Fiscal Space through Revenue Mobilization(Washington, DC, 2012-06)This book focuses on the creation of fiscal space through revenue mobilization, although such efforts are best made using a comprehensive framework that examines all available sources. Those sources include: (a) reducing lower-priority spending, (b) enhancing the capacity to implement priorities so that capital investment and social service provision can be carried out at reduced cost, (c) reforming subsidies or transfer programs to make them more targeted and efficient, and (d) rationalizing administered prices of publicly provided goods and services. 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Reform Priorities and Sector Strategies(Washington, DC, 2004-03-22)The Kyrgyz Republic suffered severe shocks during the early years of independence, loosing its traditional markets in the Former Soviet Union republics, as well as substantial transfers and subsidies from the Soviet Union, that included a falling GDP during the first five years of transition. These circumstances prompted the Kyrgyz Republic to adopt a wide range of reforms to accelerate the transition to a market economy, emphasizing price and trade liberalization, and the shift of ownership of state assets to the private sector, including land, and most state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Since the mid-l990s, the economy has shown steady signs of recovery. Despite these favorable developments, the Kyrgyz Republic remains the second poorest of the FSU republics, and one of the poorest countries in the world. 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Government performance needs to be monitored, particularly at the grass roots levels, through systematic diagnoses of institutional problems, and through quantitative performance indicators, to monitor progress and competition in public service delivery.Publication Creating and Using Fiscal Space for Accelerated Development in Liberia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-10)This paper presents simulations for the period 2013-2030 of measures that permit increased spending on infrastructure and human development, the priority areas in Liberia's 2013-2017 "Agenda for Transformation" and for its national vision, Liberia Rising 2030. The simulations are carried out with a Liberian version of MAMS (Maquette for Millennium Development Goals Simulations), a Computable General Equilibrium model. According to the results, among the key sources of fiscal space, foreign grants generate the best outcomes followed by improved government allocative efficiency. Taxes tend to involve trade-offs since they reduce resources for private consumption and investment, both of which tend to contribute to stronger macro and Millennium Development Goals performance. Increased foreign borrowing is less attractive since, in order to make a substantial difference, it would quickly add to the foreign debt, making the economy more crisis-prone and less flexible. The preferred balance between different uses of fiscal space depends on payoffs from different government functions, typically unknown or only appearing with a lag. Under the parameters used in the simulations, determined in light of fragmentary evidence, the outcomes were marginally stronger under a balanced approach with scaling up of both infrastructure and human development services. Balanced expansion may also contribute to efficiency and be easier for political reasons. 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