Governments pursue fiscal decentralization for a variety of reasons: to make government more responsive and accountable to the people, to increase the efficiency of the public sector, and to promote national cohesion. Generally speaking, public sector economists emphasize the accountability and...

The Report on the Bihar Panchayat Raj Institution Finance Study examines the autonomy, capacity, and accountability of local self-governments in the State of Bihar. This report is based on data collected from a set of 3 surveys conducted on a stratified random sample of 5 Zila Parishads, 10...

There is perhaps no more important question in public finance than who ultimately bears the burden of a tax. According to tax incidence theory, the long-run incidence of a tax in competitive markets is independent of the assignment of the liability to pay tax. Moreover, the theory is silent on...

This study sheds light on the difficulties people face in cooperating to resist coercion. We adapt a threshold public goods game to investigate whether people are able to cooperate to resist coercion despite individual incentives to free-ride. Behavior in this resistance game is similar to that...

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought enormous political, economic, and social challenges. During the transition from 1991 to the present, fiscal reform has been a pillar of Russia’s reform agenda. This book analyzes the effort to adopt a modern tax code where previously there were few...