This study investigates the effects of intergovernmental transfers on the development outcomes by exploiting a formula-based transfer scheme among municipalities and cities in the Philippines. The results suggest that the household disposable income per capita increases by 9.6% in the long run...

China is the most decentralized country in the world in terms of expenditures shares, with subnational governments responsible for 85 percent of government spending. Limited revenue autonomy and insufficient intergovernmental transfers have led to large unfunded mandates and a build-up of debt...

States are financing a larger share of capital investment by school districts but little is known about district response to facility aid programs. This paper addresses this gap by examining how a short-term increase in the matching rate for the Building Aid program in New York affected district...

Developed by Musgrave (1959) and Oates (1972), the concept of fiscal federalism describes the process performed by the central governments to deal with the distribution problem and refer the provision of services to decentralized governments. In this respect, centralized governments should...

Across the OECD, GDP per capita is converging. In contrast, regional disparities – or differences in GDP per capita across jurisdictions – are rising, mainly as a result of widening productivity differences. Fiscal decentralisation could help reduce them again. According to new OECD...

The design of intergovernmental fiscal relations can help to ensure that tax and spending powers are assigned in a way to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Decentralisation can enable sub-central governments to provide better public services for households and firms, while it...

In this paper, we estimate the efficiency of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana, and investigate the impact of fiscal decentralization on the efficiency of local public goods and services delivery by MMDAs. Using data from composite budgets of all 216 MMDAs, we...

The paper provides an analysis of the determinants of health spending differentials among the Italian Regions for the years 1998-2010. An original standardised spending framework is proposed that takes into account the appropriateness of the services provided and price/technical efficiency, as...

Within the context of reigniting post crisis macroeconomic growth, income inequality has emerged as a topic of significant interest for both academics and policymakers (Bastagli, Coady, and Gupta, 2012) This study builds on past literature on fiscal decentralization suggesting that...