This paper discusses the evolution of key taxes during the past 20 years in developing Asia and the fiscal challenges that the region's economies face in light of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. It presents estimates of tax capacity and tax potential, and discusses the productivity...

Brazil has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty and inequality. This reduction is explained by strong growth but also by effective social policies. Besides growth, public services and cash transfers have played the biggest role, the latter notably through the successful “Bolsa...

This paper evaluates the relevance of the taxation for public spending efficiency in a sample of OECD economies in the period 2003-2017. First, we compute the data envelopment analysis (DEA) scores and the Malmquist productivity index to measure the change in total factor productivity, the...

We assess notably how do extreme events affect the public sector efficiency of decentralized governance. Hence, we empirically link the public sector efficiency scores, to tax revenue and spending decentralization. First, we compute government spending efficiency scores via data envelopment...

This paper reviews the current discussions, methods, and practices surrounding the estimation of reasonable proxies for the underlying fiscal position, a useful anchor for fiscal policy. An empirical application to developing Asian economies is carried out. There is no one-size fits all type of...

This paper explores the nuanced relationship between fiscal decentralization and fiscal sustainability. Employing panel data analyses, it scrutinizes how decentralization influences fiscal discipline across different governmental levels. Results for 185 countries show that while tax...