Nowcashing: Using Daily Fiscal Data for Real-Time Macroeconomic Analysis


Book Description

Traditionally, fiscal data for policy analysis are derived from official reports that, depending on the country, are published either monthly, quarterly or annually, often with significant time lags. However, innovations in digitalization of government payments and accounting systems mean that real-time daily fiscal data exist in many countries. In this paper, we argue that these data contain valuable, but underutilized and underexploited information. Possible uses include (i) realtime fiscal surveillance which allows for much more timely responses to emerging signs of fiscal stress, and (ii) nowcasting economic activity, which is especially useful in countries where higher frequency GDP statistics are unavailable.




Nowcashing: Using Daily Fiscal Data for Real-Time Macroeconomic Analysis


Book Description

Traditionally, fiscal data for policy analysis are derived from official reports that, depending on the country, are published either monthly, quarterly or annually, often with significant time lags. However, innovations in digitalization of government payments and accounting systems mean that real-time daily fiscal data exist in many countries. In this paper, we argue that these data contain valuable, but underutilized and underexploited information. Possible uses include (i) realtime fiscal surveillance which allows for much more timely responses to emerging signs of fiscal stress, and (ii) nowcasting economic activity, which is especially useful in countries where higher frequency GDP statistics are unavailable.




Digital Revolutions in Public Finance


Book Description

Digitization promises to reshape fiscal policy by transforming how governments collect, process, share, and act on information. More and higher-quality information can improve not only policy design for tax and spending, but also systems for their management, including tax administration and compliance, delivery of public services, administration of social programs, public financial management, and more. Countries must chart their own paths to effectively balance the potential benefits against the risks and challenges, including institutional and capacity constraints, privacy concerns, and new avenues for fraud and evasion. Support for this book and the conference on which it is based was provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation “Click Download on the top right corner for your free copy..."




Care Homes in a Turbulent Era


Book Description

This scholarly Research Handbook captures key observations and analyses within the field of public financial management. It offers much-needed insights into possible future research ventures while presenting contemporary summaries of past studies in this ever-evolving field.




The State of Open Data


Book Description

It’s been ten years since open data first broke onto the global stage. Over the past decade, thousands of programmes and projects around the world have worked to open data and use it to address a myriad of social and economic challenges. Meanwhile, issues related to data rights and privacy have moved to the centre of public and political discourse. As the open data movement enters a new phase in its evolution, shifting to target real-world problems and embed open data thinking into other existing or emerging communities of practice, big questions still remain. How will open data initiatives respond to new concerns about privacy, inclusion, and artificial intelligence? And what can we learn from the last decade in order to deliver impact where it is most needed? The State of Open Data brings together over 60 authors from around the world to address these questions and to take stock of the real progress made to date across sectors and around the world, uncovering the issues that will shape the future of open data in the years to come.




Digital Solutions Guidelines for Public Financial Management


Book Description

The Digital Solutions Guidelines for Public Financial Management (Guidelines) are intended to serve as a comprehensive reference material for the assessment, design, and improvement of digital initiatives in the public financial management (PFM) area. To support the digital transformation of PFM functions, the Guidelines are structured around three Pillars – Functional, IT Architectural, and Governance and Management. Each pillar comprises six principles, which are further broken down into one to four attributes to promote more efficient and transparent PFM operations while fostering innovation and managing digital risks. These Guidelines also allow a graduated approach to digital transformation of PFM through three levels of maturity for each Attribute – foundational, intermediate, and advanced – to help take into account country-specific contexts and capacities in digital transformation strategies.




The Dollar Crisis


Book Description

In this updated, second edition of the highly acclaimed international best seller, The Dollar Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Cures, Richard Duncan describes the flaws in the international monetary system that have destabilized the global economy and that may soon culminate in a deflation-induced worldwide economic slump. The Dollar Crisis is divided into five parts: Part One describes how the US trade deficits, which now exceed US$1 million a minute, have destabilized the global economy by creating a worldwide credit bubble. Part Two explains why these giant deficits cannot persist and why a US recession and a collapse in the value of the Dollar are unavoidable. Part Three analyzes the extraordinarily harmful impact that the US recession and the collapse of the Dollar will have on the rest of the world. Part Four offers original recommendations that, if implemented, would help mitigate the damage of the coming worldwide downturn and put in place the foundations for balanced and sustainable economic growth in the decades ahead. Part Five, which has been newly added to the second edition, describes the extraordinary evolution of this crisis since the first edition was completed in September 2002. It also considers how the Dollar Crisis is likely to unfold over the years immediately ahead, the likely policy response to the crisis, and why that response cannot succeed. The Dollar Standard is inherently flawed and increasingly unstable. Its collapse will be the most important economic event of the 21st Century.




Core Functional Requirements for Fiscal Management Systems


Book Description

This paper presents a framework for planning the development of computerized government budgeting and accounting systems in economies in transition and developing economies. It argues that a comprehensive framework is needed to enable fiscal management issues to be addressed effectively, then outlines a methodology for planning systems development and proposes strategies for implementing the methodology in transitional and developing economies.




Taxation and the Peer-to-Peer Economy


Book Description

The growth of the peer-to-peer (P2P) economy over the last decade has captivated both stock markets and policymakers alike. While the means for transacting might be different to existing firm structures—with the emergence of digital platforms that connect individual buyers and sellers directly—the tax behavior of individuals operating in this new economy are very familiar. What is clear is that while the P2P economy has potentially exacerbated existing policy, administrative, and revenue-mobilization challenges associated with small business taxation—such as the choice of the tax base and how to set tax thresholds—, the technology behind P2P platforms presents a valuable opportunity to eventually solve them.




Inflation Dynamics in the CEMAC Region


Book Description

This paper analyses inflation dynamics in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) using a constructed dataset for country-specific commodity price indices and panel cointegrated vector autoregressive (VAR) models. Imported commodity price shocks are significant in explaining inflation in the region. Governments are another driving force of inflation dynamics mainly through controlled prices and the role of capital expenditure in domestic activity. In most CEMAC countries, the largest effect of global food and fuel prices occurs after four or five quarters in noncore inflation and then decays substantially over time. Second-round effects are significant only in Cameroon and to a lesser extent in the Republic of Congo.