No consensus has yet emerged on whether fiscal decentralization facilitates or impedes the growth of the public sector. One explanation for this ambiguity in the literature is that the effect of fiscal decentralization on public sector size depends on the government’s ideology. This paper...

Do reduced costs of factor mobility mitigate ‘Dutch Disease’ symptoms, to the extent that they are reversed? The case of federations provides an indication they do. By investigating 'Resource Curse' effects in all federations with available state-level data, it is observed that within...

An examination of how increased turnover among legislators in the fifty U.S. states affects fiscal policy and economic growth finds that it makes legislators short-sighted. Turnover increases the size of government by increasing the shares of both total spending and taxes in income. In...

Since its independence, Indonesia has experience a rapid and uneven economic growth. The financial crisis in 1998 has led Indonesia to decentralisation with a new political and government budget order in 2001. Researches found that the local government’s main expenditure are on routine...

The study utilizes data on major Indian states for 1980-2004 to explore the impact of political competition on state-level income and fiscal variables. The findings suggest that increase in political competition leads to an increase in state per capita income and growth. Focusing on fiscal...

This study employs both linear and non-linear approaches to examine tax audit productivity in New York State. The linear approach shows a positive relationship between audit revenue and the number of audit staff within the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance’s Audit Division....

This paper extends previous work presented at the SABE/IAREP conference at St Mary’s University, Halifax (James, 2009). In the earlier paper it was shown that conventional economic theory is used to make the case for tax reform but does not always adequately incorporate all the relevant...

The topic of multi-level taxation is currently highly relevant to two issues – European tax harmonisation and local government taxation in the UK. This paper presents a general economic analysis of multi-level government and taxation and the characteristics that might make a particular tax...

This article offers an empirical answer to the question of which institutional arrangements can help to keep the accounts of sub-national governments in balance. I take into consideration the autonomy that these governments have in raising their revenues and fiscal rules as formulated in law or...

The article is about the features of the organization of wardship and guardianship of minors. The author analyzes the theory and practice of wardship and guardianship. Particular attention is paid to problems of organization of wardship and guardianship at the municipal level.