This paper takes an in-depth look at the current state of the local public finances in the Latin America region, identifies and analyzes some of the main challenges for improving efficiency, equity and effectiveness in the delivery of public services and it closes by offering a set of...

This paper reviews the practice of levying an excise tax on soft drinks in sub-saharan African countries, and evaluates this practice against theoretical norms for levying an excise tax. The question is whether such taxes are justified or whether they are discriminatory and impose a welfare cost...

This paper analyzes the problem of collecting property taxes in fiscally decentralized developing economies. The property tax is arguably the most important source of own revenues for local governments around the world, and economists generally agree that, although imperfect, the property tax is...

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...

This paper reviews some of the main issues with intergovernmental transfers in Latin America. The analysis is set against the backdrop of the basic normative principles of revenue assignments and the practice of sub-national government financing in the region. Own revenue collections and an...

An examination of the history of budget reform in the United States indicates a perpetual tug of war between the executive and legislative branches of government for power. But surprisingly, in spite of this highly charged political process, there exists a consistent and common thread of concern...

The paper brings together the information on different components of revenues and expenditures of the urban local bodies (ULBs) in Jharkhand and analyses their growth over a recent period. The performances of the ULBs are evaluated by estimating some indicators based on actual revenues and...

The choice of the direct-indirect tax mix also is likely to have, as we review below, important consequences in other dimensions of the economy including macroeconomic stability, disparities in income distribution, and foreign direct investment flows. All those, including economic growth, will...

In this paper, we assess the contributions of current research in political economy to provide answers to these questions, while also presenting some new statistical results on the relation between tax structure and political regimes. Our discussion of the literature is selective and is...

This paper studies the impact of decentralization on the size of regional governments in Spain controlling for economies of scale, interregional heterogeneity and institutional framework, and successfully tests some implications of the model. Firstly, it supports the classic public goods theory...