The key policy challenge for Turkey in the years ahead will be to enhance and consolidate the advances made since the nation’s 2000-01 economic crisis. Higher growth could reduce unemployment and raise living standards toward European Union levels. This paper reviews Turkey’s policy performance in terms of growth, inflation, debt, fiscal and financial sector reform, and labor markets. The analysis assesses the effectiveness of macroeconomic stabilization and structural reforms since the cr...

'The Money Bomb' was launched on the morning of the Chancellor's Budget in April 1983 and although it was featured in the 1st Edition of the London Evening Standard, by the time the second edition was on the streets, the article on the 'Money Bomb' had been pulled. Similarly, orders taken earlier that day from retailers were mysteriously then cancelled.Clearly 'The Money Bomb' had hit a raw nerve with the authorities and the assumption is that the powers that be, must have felt it ...

Corruption is the cancer at the heart of many of the world’s problems. It destroys jobs and holds back growth. It fuels instability and terrorism. It traps the poorest in poverty. It even corrodes trust in the sports we love.In this collection of essays leading politicians, activists, journalists and academics begin a global debate about how we can fight back.Foreword by David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United KingdomContributors include:Christine Lagard...

This book examines the theory and practice of performance budgeting, which aims to link the funding of government agencies to the results they deliver to improve the efficiency of public spending. In a combination of thematic studies and case studies, it clearly presents the diverse range of contemporary performance budgeting models and examines their effectiveness. Its coverage is truly international, spanning developed, developing, and middle-income countries. Reflecting this, its case s...

Recent years have witnessed an increase in the frequency of currency and balance of payments crises in developing countries. More important, the crises have become more virulent, have caused widespread disruption to other developing countries, and have even had repercussions on advanced economies. To predict crises, their causes must be clearly understood. Two competing strands of theories are reviewed in this paper. The first focuses on the consequences of such policies as excessive credit g...

Unwritten rules of Wall Street--what works, what doesn't, and how investors can tell the difference. Investing is governed by unofficial rules, passed to investors through brokers, the financial press, and even fellow investorsFor more than a decade, in two previous editions, Stock Market Rules has helped investors separate the most valuable of these maxims from the meaningless and even potentially harmful. But with recent market turbulence and scandals blindsiding...

Over the past few decades, a clear trend has emerged worldwide toward the devolution of spending and, to a lesser extent, revenue-raising responsibilities to state and local levels of government. One view is that the decentralization of spending responsibilities can entail substantial gains in terms of distributed equity and macroeconomic management. The papers in this volume, edited by Teresa Ter-Minassian, examine the validity of these views in light of theoretical considerations, as well a...

This paper examines Hungary's reforms since 1968. It discusses the government's medium-term adjustment program, unveiled in the fall of 1990, which aims to install the key elements of a market economy in three years

Why is it that government debt in the developed world has risen to world war proportions in a time of peace? This can largely be attributed to governments maintaining welfare expenditures beyond what tax revenues allow. But will these governments refrain from doing what is necessary for economic growth for fear of losing their electorate?

From penalty points to water charges, funding cuts to tax hikes, The Great Betrayal is a cutting assessment of the upheavals, egos and scraps that shaped the 31st Dáil by Ireland's most sagacious political pundit-turned-political operatorAs the curtain falls on this government's term in office, it has fallen drastically out of favour, something that is hard to believe if we cast our minds back just a few years to 2011, when Fine Gael and Labour rode a wave of populist sentiment all the way...