We use bank level data to study the efficiency of banks in Sub-Saharan African middle-income countries and provide possible explanations for the difference in the efficiency levels of banks. We find that banks, on average, could save 20-30 percent of their total costs if they were operating...

Current estimates of global poverty vary substantially across studies. In this paper we undertake a novel sensitivity analysis to highlight the importance of methodological choices in estimating global poverty. We measure global poverty using different data sources, parametric and nonparametric...

We combine some newly developed panel co-integration techniques and common factor analysis to analyze the behavior of the real exchange rate (RER) in a sample of 64 developing countries. We study the dynamic of the RER with its economic fundamentals: productivity, the terms of trade, openness,...

A well-functioning public expenditure management (PEM) system is considered a critical pillar of government efficiency, on par with a low-distortion tax system and efficient tax administration. The paper discusses PEM systems in developing countries using an analytical framework based on...

Using panel data from 120 developing countries from 1975 to 2000, this paper explores the direct and indirect channels linking social spending, human capital, and growth in a system of equations. The paper finds that both education and health spending have a positive and significant direct...

This paper examines the effects of IMF financial assistance on economic governance in developing countries, based on panel data analyses of perceived governance indicators. It uses a two-stage approach to address possible endogeneity issues. The results show that successful implementation of IMF...

This book considers the impact of economic reforms on manufacturing performance and explores policy options for promoting manufacturing. Using country-specific case studies spanning Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and Latin America, the authors examine the evidence for and against both trade...

This Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) Data Module provides a review of Poland's data dissemination practices against the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), complemented by an in-depth assessment of the quality of Poland's national accounts, consumer price...

This Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes on Data Module on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia reviews assessment by agency and dataset. The mission has a set of recommendations for Macedonia’s statistical practices, on discussions with the data-producing agencies and on...

This update to the Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC)—Data Module on Greece highlights general recommendations, consumer price index, government finance statistics, and balance-of-payment statistics. The National Statistical Service of Greece (NSSG) has been working...