Fiscal Decentralization and Regional Economic Growth : The Case of the Russian Federation

In the present Master Thesis, written at the University of Bonn, the relationship between fiscal decentralization and regional economic growth is studied for the case of the Russian Federation. A rich panel dataset of 78 Russian regions during 2005-2012 is gathered by the author. Using panel data analysis, it is shown that excessive expenditure decentralization within a region, which is not accompanied by revenue decentralization, can have harmful consequences for regional economic growth during the period of the economic crisis. On the contrary, federal government can stimulate recovery by efficiently assigning intergovernmental grants. Overall, the benefits of decentralization seem to be overweighed by its costs in Russia