David Coady

Mr. Benedict J. Clements

Mr. Sanjeev Gupta

Health care reform will be a key fiscal policy challenge in both advanced and emerging economies in coming years. In the advanced economies, the health sector has been one of the main drivers of government expenditure, accounting for about half of the rise in total spending over the past forty years. These spending pressures are expected to intensify over the next two decades, reflecting the aging of the population, income growth, and continued technological innovations in health care. These spending increases will come at a time when countries need to undertake fiscal consolidation to reduce public debt ratios in the wake of the global financial crisis. In the emerging economies, health care reform is also a key issue, given substantial lags in health indicators and limited fiscal resources. For these economies, the challenge will be to expand public coverage without undermining fiscal sustainability. This book provides new insights into these challenges and potential policy responses, with cross-country analysis and case studies.

The Economics of Public Health Care Reform in Advanced and Emerging Economies

Mauricio Soto

Frank Eich

Mr. Alvar Kangur

Baoping Shang

Pension reform is high on the policy agenda of many advanced and emerging market economies. In advanced economies the challenge is generally to contain future increases in public pension spending as the population ages. In emerging market economies, the challenges are often different. Where pension coverage is extensive, the issues are similar to those in advanced economies. Where pension coverage is low, the key challenge will be to expand coverage in a fiscally sustainable manner. This volume examines the outlook for public pension spending over the coming decades and the options for reform in 52 advanced and emerging market economies.

The Challenge of Public Pension Reform in Advanced and Emerging Economies

Ms. Stefania Fabrizio

Mr. Trevor Serge Coleridge Alleyne

Mr. Carlo A. Sdralevich

Energy subsidies have wide-ranging economic consequences. Although they are aimed at protecting consumers, subsidies aggravate fiscal imbalances, crowd out priority public spending, and depress private investment, including in the energy sector. Subsidies also distort resource allocation by encouraging excessive energy consumption, artificially promoting capital-intensive industries, reducing incentives for investment in renewable energy, and accelerating the depletion of natural resources. Most subsidy benefits are captured by higher-income households, reinforcing inequality. Even future generations are affected through the damaging effects of increased energy consumption on global warming. This book provides (1) the most comprehensive estimates of energy subsidies currently available for 176 countries and (2) an analysis of “how to do” energy subsidy reform, drawing on insights from 22 country case studies undertaken by the IMF staff and analyses carried out by other institutions.

Lessons and Implications

Energy Subsidy Reform

Mr. Sanjeev Gupta

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