Purpose - The study aims to provide a clear framework of steps on how to implement the balanced scorecard model at the level of measuring and managing local performance, with a mix between what theoretical approaches show in this matter and examples of applied experiences in different contexts....

This paper examines the fiscal and extra-fiscal effects of decentralizing the collection of Brazil's rural land tax from the federal level to local governments. Using a difference-in-differences research design, we assess the impact of local tax enforcement on revenue, land use, and...

In recent decades, decentralization reforms have surged across the Global South, aiming to bring governance closer to citizens. Despite extensive debate on their effectiveness, systematic methods to assess local government performance remain underexplored, particularly in data-constrained...

The Local Development Councils (LDCs) feature a significant participatory governance function in local policy development, as local government units (LGUs) are mandated to constitute LDCs with members from civil society organizations (CSOs). While the Department of the Interior and Local...

We evaluate the impact of a recent reform that sharply increased the salaries of Italian local politicians on electoral competition and the valence attributes of the candidates elected. Exploiting misaligned election dates across Italian cities, we propose a novel methodology, the time-shifted...

The Philippines embraced a devolution agenda in 1991, leading to the enactment of the Local Government Code (LGC). Despite over three decades of implementation, devolution has remained incomplete, giving rise to the blurred accountability between the national government and local governments...

Small-scale federal democracies depend on the active participation of individuals in local political office. Both anecdotal evidence and empirical studies across Western democracies indicate a growing difficulty in recent decades to recruit candidates for municipal offices. This study examines...

The concept of resilience has gained significant prominence across various disciplines, particularly in the context of regional development. Specifically, the Social Responsibility of Local Public Administrations (SRLPA) may play a significant role in fostering resilient territories. This study...

The theory of fiscal federalism suggests that debt of subcentral levels of government is closely related to the internal organization of the country, defined through intergovernmental fiscal relations. Due to a great importance of subcentral levels of government in the theory and practice of...

This report employs a diverse range of data sources to examine district-level variations in public sector productivity in Slovakia. It leverages administrative data to measure productivity from the Fabasoft and Cezir data systems that provide detailed insights into case management and business...

We examine the human development consequences of transferring responsibility for public service provision to local governments in India, using state-level variation in the timing of administrative decentralization reforms. We find that devolution of the responsibility for health functions from...