IMF Fiscal Monitor: Achieving More with Less, April 2017
Fiscal Monitor, April 2017
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- IMF Fiscal Monitor: Achieving More with Less, April 2017
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Bibliographic details
- Published: April 6, 2017
Overview
- Fiscal policy has recently gained prominence in public debate and governments’ policy.
- Reassessment of fiscal policy stresses a greater role in fostering sustainable and inclusive growth and smoothing the economic cycle.
- High uncertainty surrounding the outlook and high levels of public debt require better understanding and management of fiscal risks.
- Fiscal policy faces the task of “achieving more and better in a more constrained environment.”
Major findings and framing
- The evolution of the debate on fiscal policy can shed new light on fiscal developments and help frame policy recommendations to countries.
- The global economy is undergoing major transformations, including a productivity slowdown, technological change, and global economic integration, which create new demands for public policies to facilitate these transformations while cushioning adverse effects.
- There is a high degree of uncertainty surrounding the outlook and stretched government balance sheets, reinforcing the need for risk management.
Tax-system and productivity (Chapter 2)
- A top challenge for policymakers is raising total factor productivity, the key driver of living standards over the long term.
- Upgrading a country’s tax system is important to boosting productivity because it can reduce distortions that prevent resources from going to their most productive uses.
- Improving the design of tax policies helps remove distortions that hold more productive firms back, generating positive impacts on aggregate productivity and growth.
- Key emphases:
- Countries are not using their resources efficiently.
- Upgrading the tax system helps chip away at resource misallocation.
- Improving tax design is a growth-friendly fiscal policy lever.
Policy implications and recommendations
- Use all policy levers, especially growth-friendly fiscal policies, to address productivity challenges and to facilitate structural transformations while protecting adversely affected groups.
- Strengthen understanding and management of fiscal risks given high uncertainty and stretched balance sheets.
- Reform tax systems to reduce distortions across firms and assets, including addressing effective marginal tax rates, tax disparity, and tax compliance costs, to improve resource allocation efficiency and total factor productivity.
Data, methodology, and analytical scope
- The publication contains substantive analytical chapters, methodological and statistical appendices, and an annex on defining and measuring fiscal space.
- Time horizons and data periods referenced include 1990–2016, 2007–16, 1980–2012, 2015–50, 2010–18, and specific years such as 2009 and 2015.
- Empirical work covers firm-level analysis of productivity, informality, tax incidence, resource allocation efficiency, and the effects of tax policy on investment and employment.
IMF Fiscal Monitor: Achieving More with Less, April 2017
Content in this bundle
- 促进增长：税收和生产率
- 明智财政政策的五项原则
- 賢明な財政政策への5つの鍵
- Проектирование роста: налогообложение и производительность
- Пять ключевых факторов разумной налогово-бюджетной политики
- تقرير الراصد المالي — ملخص واف
- 摘要 财政政策可以发挥更大作用（第一章）
- Fiscal Monitor Database
- RESUME ANALYTIQUE
- fmexsj
- Improving productivity by improving the tax system
- Achieving More with Less; Fiscal Monitor; April 2017
- Assumptions and Conventions -- Achieving More with Less; Fiscal Monitor; April 2017
- IMF Executive Board Discussion Summary -- Achieving More with Less; Fiscal Monitor; April 2017
- A Greater Role for Fiscal Policy -- Achieving More with Less; Fiscal Monitor; April 2017
- fmc2
- Country Abbreviations -- Achieving More with Less; Fiscal Monitor; April 2017
- Executive Summary -- Achieving More with Less; Fiscal Monitor; April 2017
- Glossary -- Achieving More with Less; Fiscal Monitor; April 2017
- Preface -- Achieving More with Less; Fiscal Monitor; April 2017
- Selected Topics -- Achieving More with Less; Fiscal Monitor; April 2017
- Methodological and Statistical Appendix -- Achieving More with Less; Fiscal Monitor; April 2017
- АНАЛИТИЧЕСКОЕ РЕЗЮМЕ — Расширение роли налогово-бюджетной политики (глава 1)
- RESUMEN EJECUTIVO