Public Debt, Investment, and Growth: The DIG and DIGNAR Models (DIGx)

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Session No.: OL 26.129
Location: Course conducted online
Date: May 1, 2026 - April 15, 2027 (50 weeks)
Delivery Method: Online Training
Primary Language: English
Qualifications: Some knowledge of economics is helpful. Basic Microsoft Excel skills and access to a computer with a reliable internet connection and a Google Chrome web browser are essential.
Target Audience: All government officials are welcome to register; particularly useful for officials from ministries of finance, debt agencies, central banks, and other government agencies responsible for providing advice or implementing macroeconomic and debt policies.

Presented by the Institute for Capacity Development and the Research Department.
Explains how to analyze the relation between public investment, growth, and public debt dynamics using two dynamic structural models: the Debt, Investment, and Growth (DIG) model and the Debt, Investment, Growth and Natural Resources (DIGNAR) model.
Presents and discusses the key model components: the investment-growth nexus, the fiscal adjustment, and the private sector response, and their interactions.
Helps learners understand and assess the macroeconomic effects of public investment scaling-up plans, including on growth and debt dynamics.
Elaborates on factors shaping these effects:
- Type of fiscal financing.
- Rate of return of public capital.
- Efficiency of public investment.
- Capacity of governments to mobilize revenues.
Highlights practical applications:
- Complemented the analyses done with the IMF and World Bank Debt Sustainability Framework in over 65 country applications.
- Used in Fund-supported programs and surveillance work.
- Informed policy analysis on public investment surges, fiscal consolidations, cash transfers to poor households, the mix of public current and capital expenditures, the efficiency of public spending and tax administration, and the collapse of commodity prices.
Course will illustrate applications and explain how to interpret the output of policy scenario analyses.

Upon completion of the course, participants should be able to:

Understand the basics of dynamic macroeconomic models for analyzing public investment scale-ups, growth, and debt dynamics.
Understand the key elements of the DIG and the DIGNAR models.
Understand how these models are used to analyze how the macroeconomic effects of public investment surges depend on:
- Policy responses.
- Type of financing of these surges (e.g., taxes and domestic versus external financing).
- Structural factors (e.g., the efficiency of public investment).
Interpret the output of policy scenario analyses using the DIG and DIGNAR models, as reflected in official IMF documents such as Article IV reports.