In this paper we review the fiscal evolution of China and Russia, asking how the process of creating a separate, tax-financed public sector in the two countries differed. We observe that the size of China's budget sector was consistently smaller than in Russia and that budget decentralization...

This study attempts to provide benchmarks of North Korean institutional changes that signal the increased role of markets, looking at macroeconomic management, introduction of market-supporting policies, and provision of market-supporting infrastructure. The weight of the evidence indicates that...

Do Russian federal expenditures serve to reduce regional inequality, to insure against exogenous shocks, or to compensate regions for low tax capacity? Do sub-national governments appear to engage in strategic behavior in attempting to influence central governmental transfers? Using a panel data...

We review the fiscal evolution of China and Russia and how the process of creating a separate tax-financed public sector in the two countries differed. China's fiscal budget was consistently smaller than in Russia, and their fiscal decentralisation was consistently greater. In China, local...

Between 2001 and 2007, rising prices of oil and gas provided a gigantic domestic windfall for Russia’s government in the form of export duties and resource taxes. However, the windfall created incentives for the federal government to re-capture control rights to natural resource stocks. Thus,...