Prior analyses of the relationship between fiscal decentralization and the size of government treat fiscal decentralization as the decentralization of either taxing or spending powers. But decisions about taxation and spending are inseparable. The author corrects this deficiency and analyzes the...

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...

Economic decentralization emerged as an issue in Albania following the first election of a noncommunist government in Albania in 1992. It is one of many challenges in creating a fiscal system that supports reform. Decentralization has begun with the central government's transferring spending...

The authors empirically investigate how decentralization affects the efficiency of road provision from the viewpoint of the local goods provider and the road user. The theoretical model: a double cost hidden level effort. They include both user and provider concerns in determining the optimal...

To shed light on decentralization in Russia, the authors examine intergovernmental fiscal relations within regions. To analyze trends, they review channels of fiscal allocation within regions - tax sharing and local transfer schemes. To evaluate the potential impact of various fiscal...

To encourage the private funding and provision of infrastructure services, governments have used specialized financing facilities to offer financial support to investors, often in the form of grants, soft loans, or guarantees. The authors present case studies of infrastructure financing...

The author examines the corporate governance of banks. When banks efficiently mobilize and allocate funds, this lowers the cost of capital to firms, boosts capital formation, and stimulates productivity growth. So, weak governance of banks reverberates throughout the economy with negative...

This paper develops a conceptual framework to analyze the problem of public service accountability in developing countries and to identify alternative ways to strengthen it. An important proposition derived from this framework is that effective public accountability can be sustained only when...

The transition to a market economy in Eastern Europe requires eliminating some institutions and practices and introducing new agencies with new goals, staffed by people with different attitudes and behavior. After interviewing 42 World Bank experts and other experts in the donor and academic...

Recent research studying the link between law, and finance has concentrated on country-level investor protection measures, and focused on differences in legal systems across countries, and legal families. The authors extend this literature, and provide a study of firm-level corporate governance...