Getting the most out of public spending is a challenge that ministries of finance, education and health grapple with daily. Much of this relates to sector-specific policies such as what health services should be delivered. […]
Decentralization (or devolution) has potential advantages and disadvantages: while (fiscal) decentralization may strengthen the allocative and technical efficiency of the local public sector (as well as potentially strengthen responsiveness and accountability), the design of intergovernmental […]
An important institutional feature of India’s system of intergovernmental fiscal relations is the role of Finance Commission. As per the Constitution, a Finance Commission is constituted by the President every five years to guide the […]
There has been considerable emphasis in the property tax literature on principles for what taxes should be assigned either to the central government or to lower levels of government. In contrast, intergovernmental cooperation in revenue […]
The recurrent, annual property tax has tremendous potential for mobilizing own-source revenues, primarily for local governments. The property tax generates about 0.3–0.6 percent of GDP for low- and middle-income countries, 1.1 percent in higher-income (OECD) […]
In a multi-level government system, the assignment of roles and responsibilities and institutional legacies between the federal and the subnational governments often create imbalances. A common challenges is a primary vertical fiscal imbalance, which is […]
Ethiopia—as one of the most donor-dependent countries in the world—has made good progress with respect to some of the health indicators and was one of the early achievers of the health Millennium Development Goals targets. […]
A few years ago, I was asked to co-author a chapter on fiscal federalism and public financial management (PFM) together with my friend and colleague, Professor Roy Kelly. Even though the topic addressed by the […]
Fiscal decentralization arguably improves government efficiency because it enhances responsiveness to local policy issues and incentivizes fiscal discipline. However, critics suggest that central control over local spending is necessary to equalize fiscal outcomes between prosperous […]
As experience with decentralization has accumulated, perceptions of both the problems that often accompany decentralization and the best ways to deal with them have evolved. This book draws on experiences in developing countries to bridge […]
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