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Setting an optimal fiscal policy in oil-producing countries is challenging, due to the exhaustibility of oil resources and unpredictability of oil prices. Recently it has become popular among oil-producing countries to establish oil revenue funds, which are believed to stabilize the economy and provide inter-generational redistribution of oil wealth. The effectiveness of oil revenue funds and their design have received considerable attention from researchers and policymakers recently. Using empirical model, it is found that an oil revenue fund in Kazakhstan stabilized the government expenditure, but did not stabilize real effective exchange rates.
This paper proposes a floating-interest-rate infrastructure bond, where the interest of a government bond is paid to investors during the period of construction and the early period of operation. Unlike the usual government bond, which provides a fixed interest rate, the proposed floating-interest-rate infrastructure bond pays a floating interest, the rate of which depends on spillover tax revenues. Effective infrastructure projects have a positive effect on the economic growth of a region, known as the spillover effect. When user charges and the return from spillover tax revenues are below the fixed rate of the government bond, the interest rate will equal to the fixed rate of the government bond. In this case, investors in the infrastructure will receive interest on the government bond at the minimum rate. As the spillover effect of the infrastructure increases, the rate of return for infrastructure investment will become greater than the fixed rate of the government bond. The success of the floating-interest-rate infrastructure bond depends on the spillover effect and on transparency and accountability. Policy recommendations are provided in this paper on how to increase the spillover effect and improve transparency and accountability.
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