This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to...

An equalization system ensures that subnational governments can provide similar level of public services at a comparable level of own tax-effort. This paper focuses on the importance of spending needs factors in the design of equalization transfers as well as special purpose transfers-and the...

This paper examines a typology of grants that are used across the world, and places these in the context of the overall constitutional and legal framework for a country. It looks at the options for grants, given the need to maintain overall macroeconomic stability, efficiency in the use of...

The paper empirically analyzes the incentive effects of equalizing transfers on business tax policy by exploiting a natural experiment in the state of Lower Saxony which changed its equalization formula as of 1999. We resort to within-state and across-state difference-in-difference estimates to...

The paper presents the theoretical and methodological foundations of Ukraine's state legislation regulating the economic development of territories, in the context of budget decentralization. The study also describes the transformation of the public administration system necessitated by the...

In this article we intend to analyze and deepen an important category of expenditure funded from local budget, namely the expenditure on education. Our scientific approach starts with establishing the place of these expenses within the local public expenditures by specifying their content and...

The importance of the local public finance is growing in accordance with the increasing proportion of the decentralization process. The mechanism of resource allocation, and especially the allocation criteria used, constitutes subjects of debate. Our objective pursued is to assess whether the...

In the complex process of accession to the European Union and the entry into the Euro Zone, Romania is bound to focus its efforts within finalizing the necessary reforms for fulfilling its commitments. Economic boost, low inflation, budget deficit remained within sustainable and stable exchange...

Being a succession of stages through which the local budgets are crossing as financial balances, in connection with the substantialisation and the achievement of the registered indicators in these, the local budgetary process is ruled by a series of principles. These are a synthesis of the...

The local budget process is in close connection with the economic development of the territorial-administrative units, firstly because the former implies the collection of budget revenues based on which local authorities provide public services to citizens and ensure the provision of such...