The first voices calling for reforms in public administration began to be heard just 10 years after the formation of the first Basque Government following the restoration of democracy. Since then the programmes for all subsequent legislatures have included a section on the modernisation of the...

The aim of this paper is to revise the status of the regional financing issue as well as address the free debate on the role of fiscal balances as a tool for setting the criteria of territorial solidarity within Spain. The first part examines the past, present and future of the regional...

This article examines the scale, cover, intensity and social risks covered by the social protection system in the Basque Country, and its funding sources. The period from 1995 to 2008 is analysed and compared with the situation in other European Union countries. Finally, the challenges currently...

This paper assesses the main arguments of the theory of fiscal federalism (TFF): the impact of decentralization on the efficient delivery of public programs and services. It revises the work included in the so-called 1st generation of work of the TFF, which is essentially theoretical, and those...

The slow pace of European Regional Policy since its creation knew a remarkable impulse thanks to the reform of 1988 and the beginning of the process of monetary integration. Later, it stopped abruptly, first, with budgetary constraints derived to the Maastricht criteria which led to a freeze of...

Data on the fiscal deficits of Spanish public Administrations from 2007-2011 show a significant deviation with respect to the targets fixed for this period. This occurs even though those stability targets were approved both by the central Administration and the autonomous communities in the...

This study tests the hypothesis that the preference of Spanish citizens for regional decentralization of the State is directly conditioned by their recognition that the system of Autonomous Communities generates efficiency gains. We estimate an ordered probit model using the data base created by...

Budgetary Consolidation Scenarios in the period from 1992-2001 were the first attempt in order to coordinate regional borrowing in Spain. The Basque Country would join this system under the formula of bilateral agreements with the central government. The main novelty was delivered by the Spanish...

Science, technology and innovation (STI) is still on of the most important area through which a region or a country may enhance its competitiveness and hence its welfare. However in order to respond the challenge of global economy we must optimize the interrelations between institutional and...

This paper describes the need to develop the innovative and competitive abilities of the CAE (Autonomous Community of the Basque Country) by increasing the efficiency of interactions among different economic agents. This case gives details of the set interactions in the different ways of...