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Business and Economics > Production and Operations Management

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 18 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • Tanzania, United Republic of x
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Cover IMF Working Papers
Tax Administration and Firm Performance: New Data and Evidence for Emerging Market and Developing Economies
Ms. Era Dabla-Norris
,
Florian Misch
,
Mr. Duncan Cleary
, and
Munawer Khwaja
Tax compliance costs tend to be disproportionately higher for small and young businesses. This paper examines how the quality of tax administration affects firm performance for a large sample of firms in emerging market and developing economies. We construct a novel, internationally comparable, and multidimensional index of tax administration quality (the TAQI) using information from the Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool. We show that better tax administration attenuates the productivity gap of small and young firms relative to larger and older firms, a result that is robust to controlling for other aspects of tax policy and of economic governance, alternative definitions of small and young firms, and measures of the quality of tax administration. From a policy perspective, we provide evidence that countries can reap growth and productivity dividends from improvements in tax administration that lower compliance costs faced by firms.
Keywords:
WP; tax administration; compliance cost; firm performance; total factor productivity; omitted firm category; small business; firm productivity; cash flow; enterprise manager; micro enterprise; compliance burden; Tax administration core functions; Compliance costs; Tax return filing compliance; Labor productivity; Tax Administration Diagnostic and Assessment Tool (TADAT); Central and Eastern Europe; Central Asia; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
United Republic of Tanzania: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
This Selected Issues paper examines productivity, growth, structural reforms, and macroeconomic policies in Tanzania. Tanzania experienced macroeconomic stabilization and significant structural change over the last three decades, including two major waves of reforms, first in the mid-1980s and more importantly in the mid-1990s. Both reform waves were followed by total factor productivity (TFP) and growth spurts. Over the recent period, TFP growth decreased, which coincided with a less strong reform drive. It is suggested that a TFP-led growth model is superior and that vigorous reforms are needed to foster further structural transformation of the economy and sustain high productivity gains and investment.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; Tanzania; price; tax revenue; revenue; gas revenue; management legislation; management consideration; public spending efficiency; headline expenditure numbers point; investment spending; Education spending; Health care spending; Global; Asia and Pacific; East Africa
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Togo : questions générales
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
Ce document de la série des questions générales se penche sur l'évaluation de l'activité économique du Togo en l'absence de séries trimestrielles du PIB. Le Togo recueille environ 40 indicateurs macroéconomiques mensuels qui couvrent un grand nombre de secteurs de l'économie. La sélection de variables à inclure dans l'indice d'activité économique est faite en trouvant la meilleure combinaison. Les indicateurs sont agrégés dans un indice à l’aide d'une méthodologie utilisée par le Conference Board des États-Unis. Ceci permet d'établir un indice d'activité économique qui reproduit bien l'évolution des taux de croissance du PIB réel au Togo. L’indice sélectionné réduit au minimum les écarts entre le taux de croissance de l'indicateur et celui du PIB réel effectif sur la période 2002–13.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; food inflation; Togo; GDP
Cover IMF Working Papers
Taylor Visits Africa
Carlos Goncalves
Many low-income countries do not use interest rates as their main monetary policy instrument. In East Africa, for instance, targeting money aggregates has been pretty much the rule rather than the exception. Nevertheless, these targets are seldom met and often readjusted according to the economic environment. This opens up the possibility that central banks are de facto pursuing a strategy more akin to a Taylor Rule. Estimations of small-scale models for Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania suggest that these self-styled "monetary targeters" are respecting the Taylor Principle, that is are on average increasing nominal interest rates more than proportionally to inflation. Nevertheless, steep deviations from the Taylor Rule have taken place in Kenya and Tanzania. In Uganda, these errors are much smaller, in fact similar in size to Taylor Rule deviations found for Brazil. More surprisingly, they are smaller than South Africa’s, the continent’s sole long-term inflation targeter.
Keywords:
WP; inflation deviation; interest rate equation; Neutral interest rates; central bank; inflation target; monetary policy tightness; interest rates instrument; deviations from the Taylor Rule; inflation goal; Inflation; Output gap; Interbank rates; Inflation targeting; Africa
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Togo: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
This Selected Issues paper discusses the assessment of economic activity in Togo in absence of quarterly GDP series. Togo collects about 40 macroeconomic indicators monthly that span a wide range of sectors of the economy. The selection of the variables for the economic activity index is conducted by finding the combination of variables. The indicators are aggregated into an index using a methodology used by the Conference Board. Then an economic activity index is constructed that effectively replicates the historical growth rates of real GDP in Togo. The selected index minimizes the deviations between the growth rates of the indicator and actual real GDP growth over 2002–13.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; food inflation; Togo; GDP; GDP series; high-frequency Economic Activity Index; inflation dynamics; series correspond; Public investment spending; Inflation; Public investment and public-private partnerships (PPP); Structural transformation; Food prices; West Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global; Asia and Pacific
Cover Policy Papers
Structural Reforms and Macroeconomic Performance - Initial Considerations for the Fund
International Monetary Fund
Structural policies have become a prominent feature of today’s macroeconomic policy discussion. For many countries, lackluster economic growth and high unemployment cloud the outlook. With fewer traditional policy options, policymakers are increasingly focused on the complementary role of structural policies in promoting more durable job-rich growth. In particular, the G20 has emphasized the essential role of structural reforms in ensuring strong, sustainable and balanced growth. Against this backdrop, the 2014 Triennial Surveillance Review (TSR) called for further work to enhance the Fund’s ability to selectively provide more expert analysis and advice on structural issues, particularly where there is broad interest among member countries. The purpose of this paper is to engage the Board on staff’s post-TSR work toward strengthening the Fund’s capacity to analyze and, where relevant, offer policy advice on macro-relevant structural issues.
Keywords:
PP; country group; member country; reform experience; TFP growth; Fund analysis; monetary policy; productivity growth; fiscal policy; capacity building activity; fund financing; banking system; financial market; core business; capital market; Structural reforms; Productivity; Total factor productivity; Labor markets; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Role of Productivity, Transportation Costs, and Barriers to Intersectoral Mobility in Structural Transformation
Cem Karayalcin
and
Mihaela Pintea
The process of economic development is characterized by substantial reallocations of resources across sectors. In this paper, we construct a multi-sector model in which there are barriers to the movement of labor from low-productivity traditional agriculture to modern sectors. With the barrier in place, we show that improvements in productivity in modern sectors (including agriculture) or reductions in transportation costs may lead to a rise in agricultural employment and through terms-oftrade effects may harm subsistence farmers if the traditional subsistence sector is larger than a critical level. This suggests that policy advice based on the earlier literature needs to be revised. Reducing barriers to mobility (through reductions in the cost of skill acquisition and institutional changes) and improving the productivity of subsistence farmers needs to precede policies designed to increase the productivity of modern sectors or decrease transportation costs.
Keywords:
WP; subsistence farming; terms of trade; Structural transformation; Subsistence agriculture; multi-sector models; Economic development; Transportation costs; transportation cost; agriculture sector; productivity improvement; modern agriculture; productivity difference; excess demand; improvement result; Agricultural sector; Productivity; Transportation; Manufacturing; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover Policy Papers
Sustaining Long-Run Growth and Macroeconomic Stability in Low Income Countries - The Role of Structural Transformation and Diversification - Background Notes
International Monetary Fund
NULL
Keywords:
PP; private sector; country authorities; low income; natural resources; output diversification; export diversification; economic structure; exchange rate; export Diversification; export quality; terms of trade; natural resource; economic growth; foreign direct investment; Exports; Export diversification; Agricultural sector; Manufacturing; Productivity; Africa; East Asia; Asia and Pacific; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
The East African Community: Prospects for Sustained Growth
Ms. Catherine McAuliffe
,
Ms. Sweta Chaman Saxena
, and
Mr. Masafumi Yabara
The East African Community (EAC) has been among the fastest growing regions in sub-Saharan Africa in the past decade or so. Nonetheless, the recent growth path will not be enough to achieve middle-income status and substantial poverty reduction by the end of the decade—the ambition of most countries in the region. This paper builds on methodologies established in the growth literature to identify a group of countries that achieved growth accelerations and sustained growth to use as benchmarks to evaluate the prospects, and potential constraints, for EAC countries to translate their recent growth upturn into sustained high growth. We find that EAC countries compare favorably to the group of sustained growth countries—macroeconomic and government stability, favorable business climate, and strong institutions—but important differences remain. EAC countries have a smaller share of exports, lower degree of financial deepening, lower levels of domestic savings, higher reliance on donor aid, and limited physical infrastructure and human capital. Policy choices to address some of these shortcomings could make a difference in whether the EAC follows the path of sustained growth or follows other countries where growth upturns later fizzled out. 
Keywords:
WP; EAC country; EAC member; growth acceleration; EAC economy; EAC growth; Accelerated growth; sustained growth; benchmarking; East African Community; sub-Saharan Africa; EAC integration; exchange rate; private sector; common market; Exports; Financial sector; Government debt management; Productivity; Real exchange rates; Africa; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
On the Optimal Adherence to Money Targets in a New-Keynesian Framework: An Application to Low-Income Countries
Mr. Andrew Berg
,
Ms. Filiz D Unsal
, and
Mr. Rafael A Portillo
Many low-income countries continue to describe their monetary policy framework in terms of targets on monetary aggregates. This contrasts with most modern discussions of monetary policy, and with most practice. We extend the new-Keynesian model to provide a role for “M” in the conduct of monetary policy, and examine the conditions under which some adherence to money targets is optimal. In the spirit of Poole (1970), this role is based on the incompleteness of information available to the central bank, a pervasive issues in these countries. Ex-ante announcements/forecasts for money growth are consistent with a Taylor rule for the relevant short-term interest rate. Ex-post, the policy maker must choose his relative adherence to interest rate and money growth targets. Drawing on the method in Svensson and Woodford (2004), we show that the optimal adherence to ex-ante targets is equivalent to a signal extraction problem where the central bank uses the money market information to update its estimate of the state of the economy. We estimate the model, using Bayesian methods, for Tanzania, Uganda (both de jure money targeters), and Ghana (a de jure inflation targeter), and compare the de facto adherence to targets with the optimal use of money market information in each country.
Keywords:
WP; interest rate