Fiscal Space: Policy Options for Financing Human Development

Description

With the deadline for achieving the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) less than a decade away, the uneven progress is raising important questions about the ability of the international community to 'scale up' its efforts to finance the goals. Securing adequate financing for development has thus become the most pressing issue of the development agenda. This groundbreaking volume, by leading development economists and practitioners, addresses the central concern for policymakers involved in long term planning for the MDGs: how to create 'fiscal space' for the MDGs and strengthen domestic resource mobilization for human development, while ensuring long-term sustainability and freedom from reliance on aid. By looking at the evidence with fresh perspectives, the authors present a novel approach by which fiscal policy can be made to work for the poor, for the long term. Published with UNDP and Revenue Watch

Rathin Roy is Economic Advisor to the Thirteenth Finance Commission of India and is on leave from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where he serves as Public Finance Advisor at the Bureau for Development. Antoine Heuty is Senior Economist at the Revenue Watch Institute.

'This book makes a very important contribution to answering the question of how to increase fiscal space in developing countries with a view to achieving the MDGs. The solid analytical contribution is complemented by a number of country case studies that yield valuable empirical findings.' Jaime Ros, Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame and Faculty Fellow at the Helen Kellogg Institute of International Studies