I’ve taken pride over the years in CGD’s success as a think-and-do tank in coming up with new “products” (outcomes of think/research) and working with officials around the world to see them adopted and implemented (outcomes of do/outreach and advocacy)). New products that change people’s lives in go...

This blog post argues that higher health spending is unlikely to be sustained because of the pandemic’s adverse impact on revenues, other spending pressures, and the resulting deteriorating fiscal position of LLMICs. This suggests that countries will need to undertake policy actions to create additi...

This blog post is based in part on a presentation delivered by Nancy Birdsall on March 19th, 2022 as part of the MIT Seminar XXI program, hosted by Kenneth Oye.

As developing countries recover from the pandemic, they will need to bring their public finances to a more sustainable position by streamlining public spending and strengthening the revenue base. The need to mobilize additional resources has been exacerbated by the recent economic turmoil triggered ...

The war in Ukraine is likely to have a profound impact on budget allocations, at least in developed countries. Pressures to raise military spending have intensified. Given the economic climate, other spending is likely to come under pressure.

Obviously, an ethical vaccine distribution would start with a far more equitable sharing of vaccines between rich and less-rich nations. More pragmatically, the current huge imbalance in the global distribution of shots invites another outbreak of a new variant, against which the US and other high-i...

In a study of 131 IMF programs, I found that IMF conditionality in general helped to shield education and health spending from budget cuts in the short term, particularly during budget negotiations, but it did not succeed in significantly raising spending in relation to GDP over time. In this light,...