Estonian municipalities should perform a broad range of functions, while their fiscal resources are often limited and large disparities in fiscal capacity prevail among them. Moreover, the power to regulate fiscal affairs is mostly in the hands of the central government. We discuss how a strict...

In many countries occur problems from unfunded mandates related to a shift of a function by an upper tier of government to lower rank governments without providing the lower one with financial means to perform these functions. The authors define the unfunded mandates and clarify how they relate...

The share of GDP used for financing education in Estonia is somewhat lower in comparison to the EU average, the nominal amount of per capita education funds is much more lower due to a low level of economic development. Moreover, because of thin population per square km many small schools exist...

In order to develop the necessary Estonian measures and policies the prevailing distribution of expenditures for these purposes are presented. Although the share of GDP used for financing education in Estonia is somewhat above the EU average the nominal amount of per capita education funds is...

Estonian municipalities should perform a broad range of functions, while their fiscal resources are often limited and large disparities in fiscal capacity prevail among them. Moreover, the power to regulate fiscal affairs is mostly in the hands of the central government. We discuss how a strict...