Municipalities play a large role in the Bulgarian public sector. They provide primary and secondary education. They own and operate about one-third of the hospitals in the country. Until 2003, they administered all the major social assistance programs (except pensions and unemployment...

This book addresses a variety of issues relating to intergovernmental finance and the provision and financing of local services including budgeting and financial management, the institutional framework for the conduct of intergovernmental relations, appropriate methods of service delivery in...

The Baseline Indicators (BLIs) assessment has been conducted by the Development Partners and the Government of Pakistan as a precursor to carrying forward the Government's efforts to upgrade the Country Procurement Systems (CPS) to international standards and to help it assess the level and type...

"The paper studies regional (spatial) inequality in the five most populous countries in the world: China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil in the period 1980-2000. They are all federations or quasi-federations composed of entities with substantial economic autonomy. Two types of...

The Russia Social Expenditure Review (SER) has been undertaken by the human development team in the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank at the request of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. This Report presents the key findings of the Russia SER work. The key...

This report concerns improving intergovernmental fiscal relations and public health and education expenditure policy in Ukraine. The large amount of resources the budget spends on services such as health and education, through its local government do not obtain good value. This is due to the...

The study presents an overview of the most relevant, current intergovernmental fiscal issues in the Czech Republic, centered on the options available to prod policy planning. The fragmentation at the lowest tier of government is the most striking feature of the administrative structure, thus...

The globalization of financial markets, has increased international pressure on the federal governments to maintain a hard budget constraint, with respect to sub-national governments. Because growth in sub-national deficits undermines investor confidence, the federal government is under pressure...