This book analyzes political decentralization and fiscal federalism in Canada and Germany, both traditional federal countries, and in Spain, a unitarian country engaged in the last two decades in a process of decentralization. Three key issues required for a well designed financing system are...

Financing Decentralized Expenditures presents new original research papers on the structure of intergovernmental fiscal relations in virtually all types of countries and the design and implementation of transfer mechanisms between different levels of government. In developing, transition, and...

"The authors describe the main trends of Brazil's fiscal policy during the past decade and analyze (1) the ability to raise the primary surplus in response to external shocks, (2) the pro-cyclical nature of fiscal policy, and (3) the long-run impact of government expenditure composition and...

This Public Expenditure Review analyzes trends in revenues, expenditures and development outcomes over the past 10 years. Its main findings are that, since the late 1990s, the Philippines has been caught in a low-revenue, low-expenditure trap and that the current level of public revenues is not...

Guinea-Bissau's large public sector wage bill poses a major threat to the country's macroeconomic stability: it hampers growth, limits the government's ability to service the domestic and external debt, and crowds out private investments. For this reason, the government decided in early 2006 to...

This Public Expenditure Review (PER) builds on the commitments of the 2003 Country Economic Memorandum (CEM), and 2002 Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) Progress Report, being its primary objective to assess strengths and weaknesses in key areas of public expenditure, and identify policy options...

The Kyrgyz Republic suffered severe shocks during the early years of independence, loosing its traditional markets in the Former Soviet Union republics, as well as substantial transfers and subsidies from the Soviet Union, that included a falling GDP during the first five years of transition....

The Kyrgyz Republic suffered severe shocks during the early years of independence, loosing its traditional markets in the Former Soviet Union republics, as well as substantial transfers and subsidies from the Soviet Union, that included a falling GDP during the first five years of transition....

Ghana has experienced an extended period of robust growth since the early 2000s, supported by a favorable external environment and large investment inflows, particularly in the extractive industries. In 2011, as the start of oil production drove a surge in per capita income, Ghana graduated from...

Liberia's post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation has been successful. Peace, stability and security gradually returned and provided an enabling environment for the rebuilding of this war-torn country. Over the next five years (2013-2017), the Bank will focus on building infrastructure...