According to the conventional public finance literature any tax instrument other than the lump-sum tax is inherently distortionary because it alters relative prices. This paper revisits the case of the labor income tax and shows that its supposedly distortionary effects are the result of a...

This paper analyzes the problem of collecting property taxes in fiscally decentralized developing economies. The property tax is arguably the most important source of own revenues for local governments around the world, and economists generally agree that, although imperfect, the property tax is...

This paper reviews some of the main issues with intergovernmental transfers in Latin America. The analysis is set against the backdrop of the basic normative principles of revenue assignments and the practice of sub-national government financing in the region. Own revenue collections and an...

This paper analyses the problem of sub-national revenue mobilization in Peru and proposes several policy reforms to improve collection performance while maintaining a sound revenue structure. We analyze the current revenues of regional and municipal governments and identify the main priorities...

Many countries around the world are currently pursuing policies for poverty reduction and improving income distribution. Many of these same countries are also aggressively implementing fiscal decentralization reforms. Although fiscal decentralization, poverty and the distribution of income have...

Lao People’s Democratic Republic is a small single-party State with an already long but erratic history of decentralization. Political drives towards decentralization and re-centralization have alternated for more than thirty years. Today, provincial governments enjoy a great deal of autonomy...

For almost 20 years, the Nicaraguan authorities have been implementing a fiscal decentralization process to devolve an increasing degree of autonomy to municipalities. As a part of this process, and mainly due to the efforts of the Association of Municipalities of Nicaragua (AMUNIC is the...

Romania has been actively reforming its intergovernmental transfer system during the last years. The new Law on Local Public Finance, which will come into force in January 2007, will involve substantial modifications both to the institutional arrangements and to the formula employed to...

For almost 20 years, the Nicaraguan authorities have been implementing a fiscal decentralization process to devolve an increase. ng degree of autonomy to municipalities. As a part of this process, and mainly due to the efforts of the Association of Municipalities of Nicaragua (AMUNIC is the...

Right after Romania’s change in regime in December 1989, profound changes in the structure and functioning of government and the economy started to take place. Since the early 1990s the decentralization of the public sector has been an important policy initiative in the process of transition...