Public Expenditures, Growth, and Poverty

Public Expenditures, Growth, and Poverty PDF Author: Fan, Shenggen
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 080188859X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Get Book

Book Description
Public Expenditures, Growth, and Poverty assesses the efficacy of poverty reduction programs in Latin America, Africa, and Asia by synthesizing studies conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute over the past ten years. Overall, the studies find that investments in agricultural research, infrastructure, and human capital are beneficial in the long term, while food aid and poverty reduction programs have little utility beyond immediately abating hunger and generating short-run income effects. The book develops a conceptual framework for analyzing public expenditures and their short- and long-run impact on poverty through various channels. It surveys spending trends and analyzes the effect of growing public investment on urban and rural poverty through case studies of India, China, Thailand, and Uganda. And it highlights the advantages of directing spending toward public works programs that engage impoverished peoples rather than using the limited aid money on food subsidies and other passive donations. Featuring discussions about the roles of various social safety net programs and a chapter devoted solely to the vexing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, Public Expenditures, Growth, and Poverty will aid policy makers and encourage further, more analytic study of worldwide poverty reduction programs.

Public Expenditures, Growth, and Poverty

Public Expenditures, Growth, and Poverty PDF Author: Fan, Shenggen
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 080188859X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Get Book

Book Description
Public Expenditures, Growth, and Poverty assesses the efficacy of poverty reduction programs in Latin America, Africa, and Asia by synthesizing studies conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute over the past ten years. Overall, the studies find that investments in agricultural research, infrastructure, and human capital are beneficial in the long term, while food aid and poverty reduction programs have little utility beyond immediately abating hunger and generating short-run income effects. The book develops a conceptual framework for analyzing public expenditures and their short- and long-run impact on poverty through various channels. It surveys spending trends and analyzes the effect of growing public investment on urban and rural poverty through case studies of India, China, Thailand, and Uganda. And it highlights the advantages of directing spending toward public works programs that engage impoverished peoples rather than using the limited aid money on food subsidies and other passive donations. Featuring discussions about the roles of various social safety net programs and a chapter devoted solely to the vexing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, Public Expenditures, Growth, and Poverty will aid policy makers and encourage further, more analytic study of worldwide poverty reduction programs.

Public expenditure’s role in reducing poverty and improving food and nutrition security: Preliminary cross-country insights based on SPEED data

Public expenditure’s role in reducing poverty and improving food and nutrition security: Preliminary cross-country insights based on SPEED data PDF Author: Takeshima, Hiroyuki
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 35

Get Book

Book Description
Public expenditures (PE), their sizes, and allocations across sectors, are some of the important instruments for the public sector to contribute toward sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, knowledge gaps remain as to how PEs have actually contributed to key SDG outcomes in the past, including the eradication of poverty and hunger, and the improvement in food and nutrition security in sustainable manners (SDGs 1 and 2). This study aims to partly fill this knowledge gap using the Statistics on Public Expenditures for Economic Development (SPEED data) and various country-level panel data. We find that PEs in different sectors have been significantly associated with key indicators under SDGs 1 and 2. Specifically, greater PEs for agriculture and health sectors have had relatively positive effects on total factor productivity growth in agriculture, reduced consumer food price indices, reduced poverty, reduced stunting, underweight or overweight among children under 5. A greater PE for agriculture has also been weakly associated with enhanced biodiversity. These relationships are observed for a broad class of countries, but somewhat stronger for countries that had been classified as low- or lower-middle-income in 2000. Greater PEs for education and social protection, which have been generally higher than PEs for agriculture and health, have had more mixed effects on these outcomes. While continued analyses are required to better understand the complex linkages between PE and these outcomes, the current study offers useful preliminary insights.

Public Spending and the Poor

Public Spending and the Poor PDF Author: Dominique Van de Walle
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 60

Get Book

Book Description
The book offers a critical assessment of the state of current knowledge on the distributional impacts of public spending for developing and transition countries. It focuses on the distribution of benefits from spending categories that have traditionally been seen as pro-poor, including education and health expenditures, food subsidies, cash transfers, and public employment schemes.

Public Expenditure,Growth,And Poverty

Public Expenditure,Growth,And Poverty PDF Author: Shenggen Fan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780195698138
Category : Developing countries
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Get Book

Book Description


The Composition of Public Expenditure and Growth: A Small-Scale Intertemporal Model for Low-Income Countries

The Composition of Public Expenditure and Growth: A Small-Scale Intertemporal Model for Low-Income Countries PDF Author: Emmanuel Pinto Moreira
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 74

Get Book

Book Description
This paper presents a small-scale intertemporal model of endogenous growth that accounts for the composition of public expenditure and externalities associated with public capital. Government spending is disaggregated into various components, including maintenance, security, and investment in education, health, and core infrastructure. After studying its long-run properties, the model is calibrated for Haiti, using country-specific information as well as parameter estimates from the literature. A variety of policy experiments are then reported, including a reallocation of spending aimed at creating fiscal space to promote public investment; an improvement in fiscal management that leads to a reduction in tax collection costs; higher spending on security; and a composite fiscal package.

Public Expenditure in Latin America

Public Expenditure in Latin America PDF Author: Guy Pierre Pfeffermann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Latin America
Languages : en
Pages : 46

Get Book

Book Description
Since public spending is often a crucial component of economic activity in any country, this paper looks at the implications of public spending and its effects on poverty in the Latin American context. Specifically, the paper focuses on two areas. First, because overall economic growth is a necessary condition for long-term poverty reduction, the incidence of public spending on the pace of development is of fundamental importance. Consequently, the paper examines what has been the experience in Latin America during the past fifteen to twenty years and how the state's role in the economy evolved. Second, the paper discusses the social incidence of public expenditures and its effects on poverty. The report indicates that achievement of resumed growth is clearly the goal toward which Latin American governments must be striving if more resources are to be freed for attending to the needs of the poor. However, the report goes on to conclude by saying that the only wise course of action is to consider a reform of government social agencies without further delay, rather than to wait for growth to resume before attacking the social problems of the poor.

Democracy, Public Expenditures, and the Poor

Democracy, Public Expenditures, and the Poor PDF Author: Philip Keefer
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0031210104
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Get Book

Book Description
Countries vary systematically with respect to the incentives of politicians to provide broad public goods, and to reduce poverty. Even in developing countries that are democracies, politicians often have incentives to divert resources to political rents, and to private transfers that benefit a few citizens at the expense of many. These distortions can be traced to imperfections in political markets, that are greater in some countries than in others. The authors review the theory, and evidence on the impact of incomplete information of voters, the lack of credibility of political promises, and social polarization on political incentives. They argue that the effects of these imperfections are large, but that their implications are insufficiently integrated into the design of policy reforms aimed at improving the provision of public goods, and reducing poverty.

Unproductive Public Expenditures

Unproductive Public Expenditures PDF Author: International Monetary Fund
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1557755418
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Get Book

Book Description
Public expenditure policy, together with efforts to raise revenue,is at the core of efficient and equitable adjustment. Public expenditureproductivity has critical implications for fiscal adjustment, particularly as the competition for limited public resources intensifies.By providing a framework for defining and analyzing public expenditureproductivity and unproductive expenditures, this pamphlet discusseshow economic policymakers may approach these issues.

How Does the Composition of Public Spending Matter?

How Does the Composition of Public Spending Matter? PDF Author: Stefano Paternostro
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Absolute Poverty
Languages : en
Pages : 39

Get Book

Book Description
Abstract: Public spending has effects which are complex to trace and difficult to quantify. But the composition of public expenditure has become the key instrument by which development agencies seek to promote economic development. In recent years, the development assistance to heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) has been made conditional on increased expenditure on categories that are thought to be "pro-poor". This paper responds to the growing concern being expressed about the conceptual foundations and the empirical basis for the belief that poverty can be reduced through targeted public spending. While it is widely accepted that growth and redistribution are important sources of reduction in absolute poverty, a review of the literature confirms the lack of an appropriate theoretical framework for assessing the impact of public spending on growth as well as poverty. There is a need to combine principles of both public economics and growth theory to develop appropriate theoretical guidance for public expenditure policy. This paper identifies a number of approaches that are beginning to address this gap. Building on these approaches, it proposes a framework that has its foundation in a broadly articulated development strategy and its economic goals such as growth, equity, and poverty reduction. It recommends the use of public economics principles to clarify the roles of the private and public sectors and to recognize the complementarity of spending, taxation, and regulatory instruments available to affect public policy. With regard to the impact of any given type of public spending, policy recommendations must be tailored to countries and be based on empirical analysis that takes account of the lags and leads in their effects on equity and growth and ultimately on poverty. The paper sketches out such a framework as the first step in what will have to be a longer-term research agenda to provide theoretically and empirically robust and verifiable guidance to public spending policy.

Links Between Growth, Inequality, and Poverty: A Survey

Links Between Growth, Inequality, and Poverty: A Survey PDF Author: Ms. Valerie Cerra
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513572660
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 54

Get Book

Book Description
Is there a tradeoff between raising growth and reducing inequality and poverty? This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the complex links between growth, inequality, and poverty, with causation going in both directions. The evidence suggests that growth can be effective in reducing poverty, but its impact on inequality is ambiguous and depends on the underlying sources of growth. The impact of poverty and inequality on growth is likewise ambiguous, as several channels mediate the relationship. But most plausible mechanisms suggest that poverty and inequality reduce growth, at least in the long run. Policies play a role in shaping these relationships and those designed to improve equality of opportunity can simultaneously improve inclusiveness and growth.