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Business and Economics > Production and Operations Management

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 12 items for :

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Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Kingdom of Lesotho: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
This Selected Issues paper focuses on decomposing the public-private sector wage differential in Lesotho. Lesotho’s public wage bill is significantly higher than in other countries in the region. This paper takes a closer look at the civil service wage bill and examines public sector wage premium. It provides an overview of public sector employment and compensation, estimates, explores drivers of the wage premium between the public and private sectors, and conducts a decomposition of the public-private wage gap. The upward inertia in the public wage bill has been gradually crowding out all other government spending. Containing the wage bill is essential to ensure fiscal sustainability and improve income distribution. The upward inertia in the public wage bill has been gradually crowding out all other government spending. Containing the wage bill is essential to ensure fiscal sustainability and improve income distribution. Public sector employment should be reduced and managed using a combination of essential hiring, natural attrition, and staff redeployment.
Keywords:
wage distribution; wage premium; D. policy implication; private sector development; wage bill; Wages; Public sector wages; Government wage bill; Public sector; Civil service; Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; Southern Africa; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
India’s Banks: Lending to Productive Firms?
Siddharth George
,
Mr. Divya Kirti
,
Soledad Martinez Peria
, and
Rajesh Vijayaraghavan
Capital misallocation is widely thought to be an important factor underpinning productivity and income gaps between advanced and emerging economies. This paper studies how well Indian banks allocate capital across firms with varying levels of productivity. The analysis reveals that the link between productivity and bank credit growth is weaker for firms with significant ties to public sector banks, especially in years when public sector banks represent a large share of new credit. Large flows of credit to unproductive firms represent important missed growth opportunities for more productive firms. These results suggest that measures to improve governance of public sector banks, potentially including privatization, would help reduce capital misallocation.
Keywords:
Productivity; bank lending; allocation of credit; capital misallocation; public sector bank; PSB dependence; PSB share; credit growth; Bank credit; Credit; Productivity; State-owned banks; Commercial banks; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Does Public Sector Inefficiency Constrain Firm Productivity: Evidence from Italian Provinces
Raffaela Giordano
,
Mr. Sergi Lanau
,
Pietro Tommasino
, and
Petia Topalova
This paper studies the effect of public sector efficiency on firm productivity using data from more than 400,000 firms across Italy’s provinces. Exploiting the large heterogeneity in the efficiency of the public sector across Italian provinces and the intrinsic variation in the dependence of industries on the government, we find that public sector inefficiency significantly reduces the labor productivity of private sector firms. The results suggest that raising public sector efficiency could yield large economic benefits: if the efficiency in all provinces reached the frontier, output per employee for the average firm would increase by 9 percent.
Keywords:
WP; firm; firm productivity; firm level; firm Type; public sector efficiency; industry X firm size; class size dummy; firm data; equivalent firm; Public sector; Productivity; Public expenditure review; Labor productivity; Public employment
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Italy: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
This Selected Issues paper establishes a causal link between public sector efficiency at the provincial level and firm productivity using data for about 450,000 Italian firms. It emphasizes that significant productivity gains could be realized if public sector efficiency improves from currently low levels. If efficiency rises to the frontier in all provinces, output per employee would increase 9 percent for the average firm. Implementing the public administration reform agenda and recommendations of the 2014 spending review and competition authority could help deliver some of these productivity gains.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; firm; micro firm; firm level; firm productivity; balance sheet strength; class size dummy; Public sector; Nonperforming loans; Distressed assets; Financial statements; Corporate sector; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Dominican Republic: Fourth Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement and Request for Waiver of Nonobservance of Performance Criterion: Staff Report; Informational Annex; Press Release on the Executive Board Discussion
International Monetary Fund
In this study, owing to the global financial crisis, a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) for the Dominican Republic was approved. The aim is to limit the procyclical policies in the short-term and discussions focused on policies necessary to ensure that the end-2011 and 2011 targets are observed. Administrative measures such as proindustria, withholding income tax, and indexation of specific tax are estimated to increase revenues. The conditional cash program “Solidaridad” is explained. Finally, various issues under the financial program are discussed.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; amount; Inter-American Development Bank; SDR; electricity sector reform; WB mission; D. IBRD; DR disbursement rate; IMF-World Bank; Public sector; Electricity; Caribbean; Eastern Europe
Cover Challenges of Growth and Globalization in the Middle East and North Africa
Challenges of Growth and Globalization in the Middle East and North Africa
Mr. George T. Abed
and
Mr. Hamid R Davoodi

Abstract

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is an economically diverse region. Despite undertaking economic reforms in many countries, and having considerable success in avoiding crises and achieving macroeconomic stability, the region’s economic performance in the past 30 years has been below potential. This paper takes stock of the region’s relatively weak performance, explores the reasons for this out come, and proposes an agenda for urgent reforms.

Keywords:
MISC PUBS; Misc.; country; MENA region; MENA country; oil exporter; privatization receipt; oil-producing country; MENA oil country; MENA countries' experience; a number of country; Public sector; Total factor productivity; Population growth; Labor force; Global; East Asia; Middle East; North Africa; East Africa
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Costa Rica: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund
This Selected Issues paper examines recent economic developments and economic growth in Costa Rica. The paper highlights that real GDP growth of Costa Rica slowed to 1.7 percent, from more than 8 percent a year in 1998–99, reflecting in part deterioration in the terms of trade, the end of the construction phase of a large foreign direct investment project by Intel, and the effect of high real interest rates on domestic demand. The paper also provides a brief overview of some methodological difficulties usually encountered in calculating a country’s real effective exchange rate.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; central bank; exchange rate; private sector; U.S. dollar; rate of return; trade partner; export share; General merchandise export; CBCR index; export weight; Nuevo Indicador para Costa Rica; Exports; Public sector; Imports; Real effective exchange rates; Total factor productivity; Central America; Europe; North America
Cover IMF Working Papers
Labor Market Institutions and Unemployment Dynamics in Transition Economies
Mr. Pietro Garibaldi
and
Ms. Zuzana Brixiova
This paper studies interactions between labor market institutions and unemployment dynamics in transition economies. It presents a dynamic matching model in which state sector firms endogenously shed labor and private job creation takes time. Two main conclusions arises. First, higher unemployment benefits increase steady-state unemployment, and, during the transition, they reduce the fall in real wages and speed up closure of state enterprises. Second, higher minimum wages can theoretically speed up the elimination of state sector jobs without affecting steady-state unemployment. These results are broadly consistent with existing evidence on the dynamics of unemployment and real wages in transition economies.
Keywords:
WP; private sector; minimum wage; labor market; Unemployment; Transition Economies; Matching Models; state sector job; job-worker pair; replacement ratio; CEE economy; capital gain; private sector job; unemployment insurance system; reservation productivity; wage arrears; opportunity cost; private sector employment; sector job; Public sector; Minimum wages; Unemployment benefits; Productivity; Central and Eastern Europe
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
United Kingdom: Recent Economic Developments
International Monetary Fund
This paper reviews economic developments in the United Kingdom during 1991–96. The paper examines two sets of possible reasons why the United Kingdom's savings and investment rates are lower than elsewhere. The first consists of factors leading to lower optimal rates of savings and investment: these include demographics, economic structure and technology, a liberalized financial environment, and so on. The second consists of distortions leading to lower-than-optimal savings and investment rates. The paper also presents new estimates for the potential growth rate, the output gap, and the natural rate of unemployment.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; investment; income; PFI project; United Kingdom economy; productivity growth; investment decision; repo market; Output gap; Potential output; Personal income; Income inequality; Productivity; Europe
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Iceland: Statistical Appendix
International Monetary Fund
In recent years, the IMF has released a growing number of reports and other documents covering economic and financial developments and trends in member countries. Each report, prepared by a staff team after discussions with government officials, is published at the option of the member country.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; net; Iceland; long-term debt; central bank of Iceland; Iceland inflation; gross investment; Iceland composition; Iceland output; Exports; Public sector; Consumption; Output gap; Eastern Europe; Western Europe