Cyclical Patterns in Government Health Expenditures between 1995 and 2010 : Are Countries Graduating from the Procyclical Trap or Falling Back?
The 2008-09 global economic crises have shown that no country is immune to external challenges. When policy controls are missing or not used efficiently, crises can reverse progress even in advanced economies. This unexpected outcome has increased...
Main Authors: | , |
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Format: | Working Paper |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/04/19457473/cyclical-patterns-government-health-expenditures-between-1995-2010-countries-graduating-procyclical-trap-or-falling-back http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18643 |
Summary: | The 2008-09 global economic crises have
shown that no country is immune to external challenges. When
policy controls are missing or not used efficiently, crises
can reverse progress even in advanced economies. This
unexpected outcome has increased concerns about the ability
of governments in developing countries to manage downturns.
The question is whether current and future crises will
reinforce the procyclical responses or whether these
governments will be able to escape the procyclical trap. In
the fiscal domain, countercyclical trends in developing
countries are promising. Over the last decade, about a third
of the developing world has been able to escape the
procyclicality trap. Yet, little is known about the evidence
on the cyclical patterns of government health spending. This
descriptive analysis, which covers 183 countries between
1995 and 2010, provides empirical evidence on the
cyclicality of government health expenditures, using panel
data from a global macro database, the fiscal health
database. The objective is to propose user-friendly
diagnostic approaches in this area that can be easily
replicated and updated to inform technical discussions and
policy making. |
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