Summarizing twenty five years of Spanish local public finance is not an easy task. In 1978, the new democratic Constitution completely changed the face of public administration in Spain . Until then, and apart from some minor, unsuccessful attempts at decentralization during the Second Republic...

This paper undertakes a critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of all of Pakistan’s major sources of tax revenue: the individual income tax, the corporate income tax, the sales tax, excise taxes and trade taxes on imports. For each major tax it describes the nature of the current...

The purpose of this study is to review the status of revenue mobilization by sub-national Governments in Pakistan, and to identify reform options that might lead to a higher level of revenues and a better functioning fiscal decentralization. This analysis is based on case studies of Punjab and...

Fiscal decentralization reform, the reform of fiscal relations between different levels of government, is an important fiscal policy issue in many African countries. While for many African nations the decentralized delivery of government goods and services is a relatively new concept, the issue...

Fiscal decentralization in Indonesia had been a slow-burning affair since the mid 1970s, with the country being one of the most centralized in the world, until the “Big Bang” of the 1999 reforms, when, in the period of one year, Indonesia became in terms of expenditure shares one of the most...

This paper investigates the relationship between public sector employment and fiscal decentralization. We develop a theoretical framework modeling the interactions between the central and sub-national executives regarding the level of public employment at the central and sub-national government...

For almost 20 years, the Nicaraguan authorities have been implementing a fiscal decentralization process to devolve an increasing degree of autonomy to municipalities. As a part of this process, and mainly due to the efforts of the Association of Municipalities of Nicaragua (AMUNIC is the...

Vietnam is a poor country with large and increasing needs in infrastructure, education, health, and other areas of the public sector. The current policy of the Government of Vietnam (GOV) is not to increase tax effort, but actually to reduce it. Recently, the GOV has cut the rates of several...

For almost 20 years, the Nicaraguan authorities have been implementing a fiscal decentralization process to devolve an increase. ng degree of autonomy to municipalities. As a part of this process, and mainly due to the efforts of the Association of Municipalities of Nicaragua (AMUNIC is the...

This paper reviews the literature on the effects of fiscal decentralization on the magnitude and composition of expenditures. There is consistent evidence that vertical imbalance leads to larger general government. The evidence on the effects of balanced decentralization is mixed, depending a...