COVID Module Question 3

Do published documents and information about the emergency fiscal policy package under consideration include analysis and justification of the specific policy initiatives within the package to address the COVID-19 crisis?

Guidelines
This question is asking whether the government published information and data to provide an overall analysis and justification for the specific policy initiatives within the emergency fiscal policy package. This type of broad overview would discuss the key trends in health and economic aspects of the emergency, and how these led to the choice of specific policy initiatives that the government is introducing. It would also explain the policy rationale for each specific policy initiative and its objectives and anticipated effects, alongside an explanation of how its cost has been estimated. Given the complexity of the COVID crisis, which has both health and economic dimensions, such a discussion can help citizens understand better the rationales and objectives of the government’s policy choices for responding to the crisis as well as the amount of resources necessary to fund them.

The circumstances around the crisis are exceptional, and government action will likely have occurred outside of the normal budget process. In these circumstances, the IMF finds that it is particularly important for governments to provide information that enable their citizens and businesses to understand the objective, size, and cost of the policy package and how it will affect them. Such actions will help build support for the overall policy package (and confidence that funds are not being misused) and give a clear sense of the risks the country faces. (see https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/SPROLLs/covid19-special-notes#fiscal)

Tick boxes: ''Please check the boxes of the items that appear in the relevant documentation. If none of the items are presented, please check ‘None of the Above’. In the comment box, please provide a detailed citation for each item selected below as described in the assessment directions as well as any additional details.''


 * ☐  Background information on specific policy initiatives (e.g. data and analysis on health and economic problems)
 * ☐  Policy rationale for specific policy initiatives
 * ☐  Objectives or anticipated effects of specific policy initiatives
 * ☐  Cost estimates of specific policy initiatives
 * ☐  None of the above

Should researchers only reference documents produced by the executive?
No. Researchers can use any documents produced by any public entity to answer the questions, at least to start with. We can then, when analyzing the results, decide whether these "count" or not. If you have any questions or concerns regarding a particular document, please bring it to the team.