This paper takes stock of the last 80 years of theoretical and policy literature on the issue of capital grants. In addition, we provide empirical evidence on changes in the relative importance of capital grants, and their impact on fiscal outcomes for a large number of countries. In particular,...

All in all, in this paper we argue that disparities in the availability of and need for capital infrastructure matters for fiscal equity. However, we believe that a proper discussion of this topic should be framed in terms of the incidence of outputs and outcomes of public services produced with...

Belarus is the last command economy left standing in Europe. Because it still has an option of a gradual transition ("Chinese style'"), the study of Belarus’ case can present insights on the counterfactual to the "shock therapy" approach undertaken by the rest of the Central and Eastern...

Recent socio-spatial studies point out a number of ongoing trends in the “scale division of labor of the state,” including among others, “destatization,” "denationalization, and “internationalization.” We draw on the literature in public economics to review several approaches to...

Many countries around the world are currently engaged in one way or another in policy debates or reforms of their system of intergovernmental fiscal relations. While the policy dynamics vary greatly from country to country, the focus of such reform efforts can generally be categorized into one...

The international experience shows a variety of approaches to the organization and degree of decentralization in tax administration. It is quite common to observe, even in countries that are otherwise significantly decentralized as is the case in the Scandinavian Countries, a highly centralized...

National equalization policies often are concerned with the quality and accessibility of services delivered at the lowest level (or local) government. When these policies are implemented in a hierarchical fashion through the intermediate level governments, national equalization policies need to...

This paper analyzes the effect of urbanization on the poverty level. Our theoretical model suggests a U-shape relationship between the level of urbanization and poverty. Urbanization contributes to poverty reduction but at much higher levels, urbanization leads to increases in poverty....

In this paper we take stock of what the current system of sub-national governments is like in Egypt and then build on this assessment to suggest the form of decentralization that may be both effective and politically feasible. Practically every aspect of intergovernmental relations in Egypt...

In this report we highlight some of the progress that has been made in the reform of the system of intergovernmental fiscal relations in Macedonia, but we dedicate more space and attention to those areas of the system where challenges still remain. The report is structured along the main pillars...