“Subnational governments, a key link for territorial development.” This was a central theme of the Fourteenth Ibero-American Conference on Local Finance, held on September 3 and 4 in Asunción, Paraguay.
The conference was supported by the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and hosted by the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Paraguay and the Faculty of Economics of the National University of Asunción.
The conference was honored to have Andrés Rodríguez-Pose as a keynote speaker, along with authors of high-quality papers selected for the Conference, including those on:
(i) policy findings aimed at improving the collection capacity and contribution to growth of subnational taxation;
(ii) the effects of intergovernmental transfers on fiscal results and spending on services such as education, along with alternatives to improve their performance and distributive capacity; and
(iii) opportunities to strengthen transparency and accountability in subnational taxation.
The conference also shared successful experiences in implementing integrated financial management systems at the municipal level, which serves to deepen local governments’ institutional development in Paraguay, as part of the strategy to improve the subnational finance, with the ultimate goal of contributing to territorial development.
The Ibero-American Association of Local Finance (AIFIL) is a non-profit scientific and academic association dedicated to promoting the study, research, communication, and exchange of knowledge and projects in the areas of Public Management and Local Government Financing. Details of this year’s conference, as well as those of previous years, are available on the Association’s website (mainly in Spanish).
Fourteenth Ibero-American Conference on Local Financing
Asunción, Paraguay – September 2025
Subnational finance and local development
- Axel Radics (IDB). – Presentation
- Andrés Rodriguez Pose – Presentation
Presentation Session 1 – Subnational Taxation
- The performance of property tax in Mexico: Asymmetric Assignment of cadastral management and the role of local capacity (Alejandro Beltrán, México – VIRTUAL) – Presentation
- Searching for thresholds in local corporate taxation: how do agglomeration economies affect? (Diego Martínez López, ESP) – Presentation
- Revenue mobilization in Argentina: how it affects the fiscal effort of the provinces. (Luciana Tobes, ARG) – Presentation
Presentation Session 2 – Institutional Aspects of Local Public Management
- Institutions over borders: the role of historical persistence vs. Administrative splits in development. (Jorge Guerra -Spain, COL) – Presentation
- Transparency as a tool to improve the quality of public policies. The case of subnational governments in Latin America. (M. Capello, V. Toselli, ARG) – Presentation
- Corruption in Regional Governments: Design or Implementation Flaws? (C. García, O. Henriquez, P. Toledo, CH) – Presentation
Presentation Session 3 – Subnational Finance
- Are intergovernmental transfers equalizing in Peru? Redistributive effects of the Municipal Compensation Fund. (G. Neyra Aráoz, PER) – Presentation
- Equity and decentralization of transfers in the Spanish municipal financing model. The case of Galicia. (X. Fernández Leiceaga, ESP) – Presentation
- Synthetic Indices for Determining the Distribution of Transfers from the Central Government to Departmental Governments in Uruguay. (C. Alonso, UY) – Presentation
- When population counts: Intergovernmental transfers and local fiscal performance in Bolivia. (O. Bolivar, BOL) – Presentation
Presentation Session 4 – Efficient Public Management
- Distortive Effects of Internal Customs: The Case of “Strange Jurisdiction” in Argentina. (I. Guardarucci, ARG). – Presentation
- Intermediary endorsement of the fiscal modernization program in Brazil: results of Profisco II in state tax collection. (A. Yarygina, BR) – Presentation
- Can federal transfers improve learning outcomes? Evidence from exogenous spending variation in brazilian municipalities (A. Yarygina, BR) – Presentation
Expert Panel – SIAF Experiences
- Amador Meza (PER) – Presentation
- Rocío Quinteros (BOL) – Presentation
- María Mercedes Martínez (PY) – Presentation
Feature image: Pexels.com.
