Savings Behavior And Its Implications For Domestic Resource Mobilization

Public spending plays a key role in the economic growth and development of most developing economies. This book analyzes revenues, policy, and administration of Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) in developing countries. It provides a broad landscape of practical examples, drawing from lessons learned in World Bank operations across Global Practices over the past several decades. It should be thought of as a starting point for a more comprehensive research agenda rather than a complete inventory itself. This book reviews the trends in tax revenue collection in developing countries. It provides an overview of efforts to close the revenue gap, many of which have been supported by World Bank operations. The book reviews the special challenges facing low income countries, which have traditionally relied on indirect revenues in the context of limited formalization of their economies. An overview of tax policy and administration reform programs is presented, with an overview of outstanding issues that will shape the policy agenda in years ahead.

Time -series estimates for individual countries and cross -section and time -series estimates for a number of countries show the positive effects of interest rates on savings.

The studies in the first part of this volume focus on measurement issues associated with national saving and its sectoral components. An historical perspective on saving in 11 OECD countries during the last 100 years is also presented. This is followed by analysis of private and household saving ratios in the US, Japan, Italy and the Nordic countries. Distinctions are made between eg. "low" savers such as the Nordic countries and "high" savers such as Japan and Italy. Saving behaviour in less developed countries is also analyzed, with an emphasis on the interaction between liquidity constraints, uncertainties and the lack of insurance markets. Based on numerical simulations of the impact of demographic changes on capital formation, another study argues for the usefulness of generational accounts instead of the usual fiscal deficits and surpluses in considering the relationships between fiscal policy and saving. The final two papers are a review of the relationship between national saving and domestic investment, and a study of the determination of world interest rates via the interaction of world saving and investment. -- Publisher description.

The main finding of the study is the domestic financial market plays a very significant role in the success or failure of trade liberalization. This was found to be the case in Sri Lanka during 1977-87.