RP2006/17
Robert J. McIntyre:
Credit Co-operatives in Locally Financed Economic Development: Using Energy Efficiency as a Lever
(PDF 131KB)
In most transitional and many developing countries institutions capable of supporting economic development with localized saving-investment cycles have not developed. This crucial gap is in no way addressed by either country-level macro programmes dealing with ‘development finance’ or by donor-driven ‘micro credit’ schemes of Grameen and other types operating at a lower (local) level. The latter seldom evolve into financial institutions able to sustain themselves on the basis of local resources, do not operate on a sufficient scale to trigger dynamic local-level economic growth, and are ultimately artificial manifestations of concessional or charitable aid. The advantages of credit co-operatives in mobilizing and financing local economic development are …

RP2006/16 Richard M. Auty:
Patterns of Rent-Extraction and Deployment in Developing Countries: Implications for Governance, Economic Policy and Performance
(PDF 181KB)
Rents tend to be relatively high in developing countries and also very fungible, so that differences in the scale of the rent and in its distribution among economic agents profoundly affect the nature of the political state and the development trajectory. This paper identifies two basic trajectories to a high-income democracy linked to the scale and deployment of rents. Low-rent countries tend to engender developmental political states that competitively diversify the economy and sustain rapid per capita GDP (PCGDP) growth, which strengthens three key sanctions against anti-social governance (political accountability, social capital and the rule of law) to achieve endogenous democratization that is incremental. In contrast, rent-rich countries are likely to experience a slower and more erratic transition. This is because high rents tend to …

RP2006/03
Ayodele Odusola:
Tax Policy Reforms in Nigeria
(PDF 234KB)
Nigeria is governed by a federal system, hence its fiscal operations also adhere to the same principle, a fact which has serious implications on how the tax system is managed. The country’s tax system is lopsided, and dominated by oil revenue. It is also characterized by unnecessarily complex, distortionary and largely inequitable taxation laws that have limited application in the informal sector that dominates the economy. The primary objective of this paper is to prepare a case study on tax policy reforms in Nigeria, with the specific objectives of examining the main tax reforms in the country; highlighting tax revenue profile and composition; analysing possible distributional impacts on the poor; discussing major problems that could prevent effective tax implementation in the country; and offering suggestions for reforms.

RP2006/02
Samuel Fambon:
Taxation in Developing Countries: Case Study of Cameroon
(PDF 118KB)
In the beginning of the 1980s, Cameroon witnessed a sustained rate of growth, associated essentially with the boom in the oil sector. Increased budgetary and extra-budgetary resources generated by this sector helped to raise the investment rate in the economy, and to maintain a reasonable level of external indebtedness. But after this period of expansion, the country experienced unfavourable economic development caused by a successive decline in the terms of trade, leading to profound imbalances, notably in public finance and the external account. The government subsequently initiated a series of measures to reform its tax system and to adapt it to national economic realities. An efficient and equitable taxation encourages production and the accumulation of national wealth stimulates saving and investments and hence job creation. Such a tax system could, therefore, ensure sustainable growth and development in Cameroon.
The study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the evolution of the tax system in Cameroon. In particular, the paper reviews the chronology of the main tax reforms and the evidence on the distributional aspect of taxation. Investigating the issues involved with tax administration and decentralization in the country and local government finances, it also attempts to explore the problems and successes associated with the implementation of tax reforms.

RP2006/01
P.B. Anand:
Millennium Development Goal 7: An Assessment of Progress With Respect to Water and Sanitation: Legacy, Synergy, Complacency or Policy?
(PDF 256KB)
Access to water and sanitation (target 10) is an important ingredient of quality of life. As per WHO-UNICEF assessments, globally, 77 per cent of population had access to water in 1990. This proportion has increased to 83 per cent in 2002, thus, on track to achieve the target of halving the proportion of population without safe access by 2015. However, there is considerable regional disparity in progress which remains significantly low in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Also, the question remains whether increased access is same as sustainable access. In 2002, some 2.6 billion people worldwide did not have access to safe sanitation options. Of these, nearly 2 billion were in the rural areas. While in almost all countries, the proportion of people having access to improved sanitation in 2002 has increased compared to the status in 1990, in 27 countries including India, Nepal, Lao PDR, Namibia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Yemen, two out of three people did not have access to improved sanitation in 2002. …/

RP2005/70
Marco Mazzoli:
Financial Markets and R&D Investments: A Discrete-Time Model to Interpret Public Policies
(PDF 170KB
This paper introduces a discrete-time intertemporal investment model in which the flow of profits affects the risk premium on the cost of finance, and, as a consequence, the rate of discount of future profits. While public investments, according to a consolidated literature, constitute the main bulk of innovation policies, this model is used to comment and interpret the potential use of another, secondary, public policy, consisting of tax incentives for firms performing R&D expenditures and issuing securities in the stock market. Linking public policies for innovation to the stock market might help to reduce the problems of discretionality and the monitoring of public expenditure used to finance R&D and technical innovation.

RP2005/68
Subal C. Kumbhakar and George Mavrotas:
Financial Sector Development and Productivity Growth (PDF 427KB)

Recent years have witnessed important structural changes around the world as a result of the globalization process, the creation of new economic blocks and the liberalization of financial sector in many countries. Responding to these changes many sectors of the industrialized countries have gone through major deregulatory changes to acclimate themselves to new environments. At the same time, many countries have undertaken institutional reforms to build a market-orientated financial system in the hope that transition towards market economy will improve productivity. In the face of uncertainty resulting from changes in regulatory structure and the development of financial institutions to foster market economy, many countries may not be able to achieve their maximum growth potential. In other words, productivity growth is likely to depend on the development of financial institutions and the stage of economic development. …/…

RP2005/67 Stephen Njuguna Karingi and Bernadette Wanjala:
The Tax Reform Experience of Kenya (PDF 145KB)

RP2005/66 Robert Darko Osei and Peter Quartey:
Tax Reforms in Ghana (PDF112KB)

RP2005/65 Alemayehu Geda and Abebe Shimeles:
Taxes and Tax Reform in Ethiopia, 1990-2003 (PDF 165KB)

RP2005/39 Anthony Enisan Akinlo:
Impact of Macroeconomic Factors on Total Factor Productivity in Sub-Saharan African Countries (PDF 202KB)

RP2004/27 Carlos A. Ibarra: Capital Flows, Exchange Rate Regime, and Macroeconomic Performance in Mexico (PDF 245KB)

RP2004/22 David Fielding, Kevin Lee and Kalvinder Shields:
Modelling Macroeconomic Linkages in a Monetary Union: A West African Example (PDF 414KB)

RP2004/21 David Fielding, Kevin Lee and Kalvinder Shields:
The Characteristics of Macroeconomic Shocks in the CFA Franc Zone (PDF 1047KB)

RP2004/20 Anja Shortland and David Stasavage:
Monetary Policy in the Franc Zone: Estimating Interest Rate Rulesfor the BCEAO (PDF 240KB)

DP2005/01 Elinor Ostrom:
Unlocking Public Entrepreneurship and Public Economies (PDF 67KB)

DP2003/87 Robin Boadway:
National Taxation, Fiscal Federalism and Global Taxation (PDF 245KB)

DP2003/86 Agnar Sandmo:
Environmental Taxation and Revenue for Development (PDF 235KB)

DP2003/83 Ilene Grabel:
The Revenue and Double Dividend Potential of Taxes on International Private Capital Flows and Securities Transactions (PDF 225KB)

DP2003/81 Machiko Nissanke:
Revenue Potential of the Currency Transaction Tax for Development Finance: A Critical Appraisal (PDF 311KB)

The paper assesses the potential of currency transaction taxes (CTT, widely known as the Tobin tax), to raise revenue for global development. Though Tobin proposed and others assessed CTTs in terms of reducing exchange rate volatility and improving macroeconomic policy environments, this paper considers the CTT first and foremost from the standpoint of revenue. With a view of establishing a ‘permissible’ range of tax rates to obtain realistic estimates of revenue potential, it first reviews the debate over the effects of CTT on market liquidity and the efficiency of foreign exchange markets, and assesses the Spahn proposal for a two-tier currency tax. It then moves to a discussion of the technical and political feasibility of CTT, followed by an evaluation of several new proposals, such as those advanced by Schmidt and Mendez. The paper presents revenue estimates from CTT in light of recent changes in the composition and structure of foreign exchange markets.

DP2003/58 Andr頄ecoster and Inna Verbina:
Who Pays Indirect Taxes in Russia? (PDF 395KB)

DP2003/51 Jaan Masso and Almas Heshmati:
Optimality and Overuse of Labour in Estonian Manufacturing Enterprises (PDF 324KB)

DP2003/44 Mario Reyna-Cerecero and George Mavrotas:
Inflation, Output and Perfectly Enforceable Price Controls in Orthodox and Heterodox Stabilization Programmes (PDF 245KB)

DP2003/22 Birgitte Andersen and Marva Corley:
The Theoretical, Conceptual and Empirical Impact of the Service Economy: A Critical Review (PDF 212KB)

DP2003/14 Roger Kelly and George Mavrotas:
Financial Sector Development – Futile or Fruitful? An Examination of the Determinants of Savings in Sri Lanka (PDF 169KB)

Using dynamic econometric techniques the paper investigates the determinants of private saving in Sri Lanka with a primary focus on the role of financial sector development. Empirical evidence is obtained indicating the existence of the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis, and the significance of credit constraints on private saving. Most significantly, an index of financial sector development variables is constructed, based on measures of the relative size of the financial sector, the absolute size, and the activity of financial intermediaries. The index is found to have a significant positive influence on the level of private saving, giving support to the hypothesized nexus between saving and financial sector development.

DP2003/13 Samuel Munzele Maimbo and George Mavrotas:
Financial Sector Reforms and Savings Mobilization in Zambia (PDF 242KB)

DP2003/12 Roger Kelly and George Mavrotas:
>Savings and Financial Sector Development: Panel Cointegration Evidence from Africa (PDF 211KB)

The paper uses different measures of financial sector development for a dynamic heterogeneous panel of 17 African countries to examine the impact of financial sector development on private savings. An innovative econometric methodology is also employed related to a series of cointegration tests within a panel. This is an important contribution since traditional panel data analysis adopted in previous studies suffers from serious heterogeneity bias problems. The empirical results obtained vary considerably among countries in the panel, thus highlighting the importance of using different measures of financial sector development rather than a single indicator. The evidence is rather inconclusive, although in most of the countries in the sample a positive relationship between financial sector development and private savings seems to hold. The empirical analysis also suggests that a change in government savings is offset by an opposite change in private savings in most of the countries in the panel, thus confirming the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis. Liquidity constraints do not seem to play a vital role in most of the African countries in the group, since the relevant coefficient is negative and significant in only a small group of countries.

RP2004/15 Anja Shortland and David Stasavage:
Monetary Policy in the CFA Zone: Country-level Credit Policy (PDF 201KB)

RP2004/14 Mireille Linjouom:
The Costs and Benefits Analysis of CFA Membership: The Choice of an Exchange Rate Regime for the CFA Countries Zone (PDF 286KB)

RP2004/09 Simeon Coleman:
An Aggregate View of Macroeconomic Shocks in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparative Study Using Innovation Accounting (PDF 419KB)

RP2004/17 David Fielding and Kalvinder Shields:
The Impact of Monetary Union on Macroeconomic Integration: Evidence from West Africa (PDF 332KB)

RP2006/53 Meredith Woo-Cumings:
The Rule of Law, Legal Traditions, and Economic Growth in East Asia (PDF 154KB)

This paper examines the literature on the rule of law and economic development, and in particular the influential argument by La Porta et al., on the superiority of the Anglo- American common law system in fostering financial development. In this paper I show that however compelling their argument might be, legal traditions and institutions do not determine the nature of the state, nor its likely role in the economy—nor do they critically determine the course of economic development. I build my case by examining the real and informal mechanisms of state intervention in the economy in East Asia.