The authors consider the malaise with the present set-up of fiscal federalism in Mexico from the points of view of the main players-the federal government, the states, the municipalities, and the citizen voters-in order to identify the areas of potential common interest as well as the direct...

The author presents an overview of intergovernmental fiscal transfer systems used in nine developing and industrial countries, and draws implications for other developing countries. On the basis of a comparison of these countries, the author classifies equalization transfer formulas into four...

Recently there has been a surge in international empirical evidence that national policymakers allocate resources across regions based on political considerations, in addition to any normative considerations of equity and efficiency. In order to mitigate these political compulsions, several...

Gonzalez and Paqueo examine the effects of budget stabilization funds--often called rainy-day funds--on the volatility of social spending and, for contrast, on nonsocial sector spending. They analyze the rainy-day funds of U.S. states. The authors find that rainy-day funds are ineffective in...

The paper provides an empirical analysis of the determinants of fiscal decentralization within Russian regions in 1994-2001. The conventional view that more decentralized governments are found in regions and countries with higher income, higher ethnolinguistic fractionalization, and higher...

Brazil is a three-tiered federation of 24 states, two federal territories, a federal district, and 4,300 municipalities. In 1989 less than half of all government spending was controlled by the federal government. Brazil's new constitution gave autonomous broad powers to states and municipalities...

Over the past 15 years, China has gradually moved from a highly centralized to a decentralized system in almost all aspects of economic management. Decentralization has changed the role of each level of government in economic management, and has greatly complicated the relations between levels...

This paper examines a puzzle in the political economy of infrastructure in India -- the co-existence of relatively low shares of capital spending in public budgets alongside evidence of large demand for village infrastructure from poor voters. It argues that this pattern is due to infrastructure...

This paper identifies six models of public service reform that have been practiced in developing countries over the past half-century. It critically reviews their implementation, discussing them as attempted solutions to problems that have arisen in the policy process in different countries. The...

When seeking a public service, users may be required to pay in bribes more than the official price. Consequently, some users may be discouraged and choose not to seek a service due to the higher price imposed by the bribery"tax."This paper explores the price and quantity components of the...