Fiscal decentralization has been, and remains high on the policy agenda of many countries. It is mainly driven by political pressures, which tend to be especially evident in countries with multiple ethnicities, and/or wide regional disparities in incomes or resource endowments. More generally,...

Conventional wisdom postulates that there are benefits from decentralizing government finances but there is little empirical evidence about actual country practices. This paper presents data on fiscal decentralization for about 80 countries over a period of about 20 years (1990-2008) from the...

In preparing for the discussions of the Iraqi Constituent Assembly, IMF and World Bank staff and consultant experts presented to senior officials from the central and local governments in Iraq, including from Kurdistan, key options that might be relevant for the discussions. This paper reflects...

Based on cross-country data for up to 78 countries, this paper shows that fiscal decentralization-the assignment of expenditure and revenue mobilization functions to subnational levels of government-is associated with various indicators of governance, such as corruption, rule of law, and...

Empirical studies of the effects of intergovernmental grants to localities do not support standard microeconomic predictions. Block grants have surprisingly large positive effects on public expenditures. Researchers have attributed this “flypaper effect” to imperfect information (fiscal...

The paper argues that international differences in fiscal conditions influence the relative attractiveness of locating production facilities in different countries and could prove to be a troublesome source of instability for the European economies. Even though physical capital movements tend to...

Full implementation of an intergovernmental transfer system based on revenue capacities and expenditure needs could significantly improve both redistribution and equity objectives of the Chinese authorities. This was envisaged in the 1994 fiscal reforms, but the authorities were unable to...

Am 3. Januar 1992 stellte der Präsident der russischen Föderation den offiziellen Antrag auf Aufnahme in den IMF und die Weltbankgruppe. Bereits seit November 1991 besuchten IMF-Experten Moskau, um mit den russischen Behörden die Wirtschaftspolitik zu besprechen, eine fundierte...

A joint IMF-World Bank mission visited the Russian Federation from March 15 to 31, 2016, to conduct an assessment under the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP). The mission assessed financial sector risks and vulnerabilities, assessed the quality of financial sector supervision, and...

With about RUB 988bn (USD 26bn) in gross premium written, in 2014, the Russian insurance industry ranked 27th in the world. Non-life insurance premium accounted for 89 percent of GPW while life insurance for only 11 percent. In 2015, the industry also faced with the consequences of the Western...