Ideally, these programs should involve real expenditures on goods and services that will immediately create jobs.
Because of the opaqueness of the Chinese military system and secrecy about the workings of its uppermost body, the Central Military Commission, the real expenditures were not known, they said.
So the administration, with the help of the Finance Ministry in Baghdad, appears to have relied on a combination of indicators, including real expenditures, ministries' suggestions of projects they intended to carry out, and contracts that were still under negotiation, Mr. Christoff said.
Its real GDP performance, however, is very similar to that of Ireland or the Baltics; after adjusting by PPP, the real expenditures per person have fallen considerably and are still in decline (see chart, HT Jon Danielsson).Why is Iceland not doing better?
Yet real expenditures per recipient, now $6,000 a year, have grown roughly two and a half times faster than real wages over the last 25 years.
Data restrictions make it harder to make analogous statements about developing countries, but the prima facie evidence is consistent with many of these countries also having increased real expenditures with at best small test score gains to show for it.
