The Evaluation of Public Expenditure in Africa Book

This book examines the role of public expenditures in contributing to economic growth in Africa. It presents five country case studies -using Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Ghana, and Guinea- that examine how institutions, perceptions, history, and culture have influenced decisions on government spending. The studies illustrate that government spending decisions emerge from a wide range of considerations for which there are no simple rules. The editors first define the development objective as " putting in place an economy whose routine functioning generates sustained growth of output that in turn helps increase the populations [sic] well-being. " They conclude that government can contribute to meeting that objective by helping to increase the factors of productivity through taxes, regulation, exchange and interest rate policies, as well as through government expenditure. The case studies, however, point to the importance of admitting that both market and government failures exist, and that the economics profession has a limited understanding of the sources of productivity growth. The difficulty, they conclude, is in being sure of the " right " policies or the " right " role of government in any particular set of circumstances.