Book excerpt: This report reviews how various countries are seeking to boost public investment management performance (PIMP) in response to the current economic downturn. Public investment, for the purposes of this review, includes investment by the general government plus investment by government-owned corporations. The report was commissioned for the Public Sector Performance Global Expert Team (PSP GET) at the World Bank. The report focuses on the potential roles for public investment management in the current downturn, including: i) scaling-up investment spending i.e. simply doing more; ii) selecting investments that are likely to be most effective in terms of stimulating the economy or protecting particular social/vulnerable groups; iii) helping to accelerate investments by reducing the time between conception to implementation; and iv) other improvements in the general quality of investment spending, i.e. reducing waste or enhancing efficiency and effectiveness.