scholarly journals Assessing the 2019 Redesign of Bulgarian Fiscal Equalization System

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Keyword(s):  
Central Government ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Service Levels ◽  
Government Grants ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Fiscal Disparities ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
Fiscal Equalization System

In many countries the narrowing of horizontal fiscal imbalance at local government level is an important issue of national fiscal policy. Large fiscal disparities at municipal level could lead either to lower service levels in fiscally poor regions or to higher tax rates for similar service levels in these regions. In turn, this could thwart efforts to reduce inequality in income distribution between individuals or could induce fiscally inefficient migration of business and individuals. Since the launch of fiscal decentralization reforms in Bulgaria in 2003 part of central government grants system for municipalities has been the equalization grant aimed at financing a minimum level of local services delivery. The equalization formula has undergone many changes during the years, and the last one was implemented in 2019. The main focus of the current study is to compare the equalizing effect of the equalization schemes applied in Bulgaria in 2018 and 2019. In order to test whether the 2018 and 2019 distribution formulas carry an equalizing effect with respect to municipal expenditure needs, per capita transfers received is regressed on three variables or indicators reflecting the differences in the municipal expenditure needs. Our results show that the new equalization mechanism as of 2019 is better designed to capture the differences in municipal expenditure needs and to alleviate fiscal disparities at local level when compared to the mechanism applied in 2018.

scholarly journals Resistances to Gender Mainstreaming: An Analysis of the Trend of Women Engagement in Participatory Gender-Responsive Budgeting in Bangladesh

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Shuvra Chowdhury
Keyword(s):  
Central Government ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
Government Level

Gender Responsive budgeting (GRB) is among a few approaches for gender mainstreaming that has been introduced by the governments around the world or international funding organizations to institutionalize gender equality in public reforms. The formal processes of planning and budgeting at the Union Parishad (UP) - the lowest administrative tier of Bangladesh- offer general citizens to raise their demands at the local level. Besides, there is a provision that a 30% fund will be earmarked for women. In this paper, the case of UP gender budgeting practice was analyzed from a gender perspective. On the basis of case oriented qualitative research strategy, this was an empirical study of 06 (six) UPs of three different districts of Bangladesh. The data of this study indicated that members of the Non-Government Organizations (NGO) played a catalyst role in enhancing the access of women in the UP planning and budgeting processes. Along with the existing problems of local-level planning, lack of fiscal decentralization including resource constraint, absence of women development funding, the absence of women administrative officers at the different layers of government offices and obstacles and resistances in religion and patriarchal dimensions are inhibiting women to participate in the participatory processes. For implementing the GRB reform agenda suggestions are made for creating independent women budget groups at the local government level and researching on a broader perspective on GRB issues at the central government level.   

Determinants of the Distribution of the Central-Government Budgetary Grants in Turkey

2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 954-967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Recep Tekeli ◽  
Muhittin Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Fiscal Disparities ◽  
Grant Allocation ◽  
Incumbent Party ◽  
Government Grant ◽  
Economic Criteria

Intergovernmental grants are the main revenue source of local governments. In the fiscal decentralization literature it has been argued that fiscal disparities across the regions are accounted for in the central-government grant distribution. However, some argue that grants are given to localities to increase the reelection chances of the incumbent or to increase the votes at election. To compete with the opposition parties the incumbent party may try to allocate the grants to aligned local governments. In this paper we analyze the grant allocation in Turkey. We test empirically whether central-government's budgetary transfers to the municipalities were made on the basis of economic criteria or in accordance with the political interest of politicians, and hence the coalition government. To test the hypothesis we followed the literature but we used additional variables. Using municipal data in sixty-one provinces, we find that the desire to secure reelection motivates politicians.

scholarly journals ROLE OF THE REFORMS OF THE 1550-IES AS INSTITUTIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION MEASURES

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 26-32
Author(s):  
R. V. Fomenko
Keyword(s):  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Evolutionary Development ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
State Administration ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
Government Level

The article considers the prerequisites for the implementation, nature and significance of institutional measures to counter corruption at the local government level in Russia during the reforms of the 50-ies of the XVI century. The problems of evolutionary development or deliberated formation of new ways of combining public and private interests at the local level, interchangeability and complementarity of different forms of state administration, regional and local self-government are put. The article shows that in the search for ways to counteract abuse by vicegerent, the Central government gives wide powers to the bodies of local self-government. But the state will be able to completely abandon the vicegerent system only by the beginning of the XVII century. In turn, corruption costs were also evident in the activities of local authorities, which forces the state to create additional internal institutional mechanisms, and to impose anti-corruption expectations on new bureaucratic bodies voivodes, which were becoming a local continuation of the prikaz system.

scholarly journals Managerial accounting in the implementation of deliverology using the example of Ukraine

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (54) ◽  
pp. 72-83
Author(s):  
Andrii Y. Buriachenko ◽  
Tetiana V. Zhyber ◽  
Tetiana Paientko
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Operational Control ◽  
Managerial Accounting ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
The Public ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Fiscal Decentralisation ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
Government Level

AbstractThe article is devoted towards the application of managerial accounting for deliverology development at the local government level in countries and comparing them to the stage of fiscal decentralisation implementation in Ukraine. The aim of the article is to show how the application of the managerial accounting approach in the public sector can contribute to the introduction of deliverology at the local level using Ukraine as an example. The methodology is based on the application of Difference in Difference method for the implementation of deliverology at the local government level. It has been proved that the use of multi-criteria decision-making methods in the analysis of the performance of budget programmes at the local level will contribute to the improvement of public services delivery. The main contribution of this study is to provide the basis for developing recommendations for the use of a single or uniform standard of electronic databases on regional development indicators and local budgets. This will help to ensure operational control over deviations of actual indicators from planned ones, as well as identify regions where local authorities are using resources inefficiently.

scholarly journals The Dangers of Fiscal Decentralization and Public Service Delivery: a Review of Arguments

2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helge Arends
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Local Context ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Service Provision

Abstract The prevailing belief is that local governments, which are closer to their citizens, can deliver public goods much more efficiently than a central government can. Yet skeptics argue that fiscal decentralization can be dangerous. The underlying motivation of this article is to review the basic rationale behind decentralizing public services from the perspective of three main controversies emerging from the literature on decentralization: (in)efficient, (un)equal, and (un)accountable service provision at the local level. For illustrative purposes, this review focuses on two complex and socially important sectors, health and education. The overall conclusion is that the dangers of decentralization are highly relevant to local public service provision, although there is evidence supporting both the decentralization-enthusiastic and the decentralization-skeptical views. When decentralizing public services, reformers should know the specificities of the public service, the local context, and the effects of the design of fiscal relations like the backs of their hands. If things go wrong, recentralization should be an option.

Concept of Power Decentralization in Political Science and Approaches to its Methodological Study

2017 ◽  
pp. 229-235
Author(s):  
Halyna Kuzub
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Symbolic Interactionism ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Perfect State ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Structural Functionalism

The problem of power decentralization is up to date in a modern political science. We can trace its historical genesis first in European and further in the USA political ideas. Decentralization of power was considered along with the study of a perfect state system, civil society and local self-government. It is argued that the major part of successful process of power decentralization in the Western Europe was due to the idea nature for their political culture. The article attempts to retrace the history of the idea of power decentralization. As a background of the investigations of such thinkers as J. Bodin, J. Althusius, J. Locke, J.-J. Rousseau, C.-L. Montesquieu, R. Owen, C. Fourier, J. S.Mill, T. Jefferson, A. de Tocqueville and M. Dragomanov were thoroughly investigated. The paper also considers the modern definitions of power decentralization. Likewise the value of structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism and constructivism are argued in terms of further surveys of power decentralization. To conclude, the author opines that civil servants training, their theoretical teaching and moral education have to become the main objectives in perspective investigations. Furthermore, the success of power decentralization depends not only on devoting authority by central government, but also on capacity of its implementation by deputies on the local level. Keywords: Decentralization of power, deconcentration of power, administrative and political decentralization, classical and non-classical philosophy, structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism, construc-tivism

scholarly journals Game Theory-Based Analysis of Local Governments’ Behavioral Dissimilation in the Third-Party Soil Pollution Control under Chinese-Style Fiscal Decentralization

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
Caihua Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Soil Pollution ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
Third Party ◽  
The Third ◽  
Party Control ◽  
The Third Party

The participation of a third party of the environmental service enterprise theoretically increases the level and efficiency of soil pollution control in China. However, Chinese-style fiscal decentralization may have a negative impact on the behaviors of participants, especially the local government. First, this paper conducts a positioning analysis on participants of the third-party soil pollution control in China and discusses the behavioral dissimilation of the local government under fiscal decentralization. Second, taking the government’s third-party soil pollution control as a case, a two-party game model of the central government and the local government is established around the principal-agent relationship, and a tripartite game model of the central government, the local government, and the third-party enterprise is designed around the collusion between the local government and the third-party enterprise. The results show that Chinese-style fiscal decentralization may lead to the behavioral dissimilation of local governments, that is, they may choose not to implement or passively implement the third-party control, and choose to conspire with third-party enterprises. Improving the benefits from implementing the third-party control of local governments and third-party enterprises, enhancing the central government’s supervision probability and capacity, and strengthening the central government’s punishment for behavioral dissimilation are conducive to the implementation of the third-party soil pollution control. Finally, this study puts forward policy suggestions on dividing the administrative powers between the central and local government in third-party control, building appraisal systems for the local government’s environmental protection performance, constructing environmental regulation mechanisms involving the government, market and society, and formulating the incentive and restraint policies for the participants in the third-party soil pollution control.

Taxation in a mixed economy: the case of China

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davidson Sinclair ◽  
Larry Li
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Corporate Income Tax ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Government Ownership ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
For Profit

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Chinese firms’ ownership structure is related to their effective tax rate. The People’s Republic of China provides an interesting environment to examine the corporate income tax. Government has significant ownership stakes in the for-profit economy and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are liable to the corporate income tax. This is very different to most other economies where SOE tends to dominate the not-for-profit economy and pays no corporate income tax. Government ownership also varies between the central government and local government in addition to state asset management bureaus. This provides a rich institutional background to examining the corporate income tax. Design/methodology/approach A panel data analysis approach is used to examine relationship between ownership structure and effective tax rates of all public firms in China from 1999 to 2009. Findings The authors report that effective tax rates do appear to vary across the ownership types, but that SOEs pay a statistically higher effective tax rate than to non-state-owned. In addition, local government owned SOE pay higher effective tax rates than central government and SAMB owned SOE. The authors also investigate Zimmerman’s (1983) political cost hypothesis. Unfortunately, these results are econometrically fragile with the statistical significance of those results varying by empirical technique. Originality/value This paper provides insight into government ownership and taxation in China.

Incomplete Fiscal Decentralisation: An Impediment for Local Economic Development in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-105
Author(s):  
Audrey Smock Amoah ◽  
Imoro Braimah ◽  
Theresa Yaba Baah-Ennumh
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Fiscal Decentralisation ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
Government Level

For the past three decades Ghana’s democratic decentralisation policy has sought in vein to establish a local government system capable of pursuing Local Economic Development (LED). One of the major impediments has been the insincere implementation of fiscal decentralisation for the local government to provide the enabling environment for LED. This paper employed primary and secondary data from the Wassa East District Assembly (WEDA) to assess the progress so far in Ghana’s fiscal decentralisation and its effect on LED. The paper highlights the potential benefits of LED and the incapacitation of the District Assembly by the Central government for LED financing. The paper again reveals the effects of the constraints of fiscal decentralisation on LED at the local government level and makes policy recommendations towards effective fiscal decentralisation for improvement in LED.

scholarly journals USING PARTICIPATORY APPROACH TO IMPROVE AVAILABILITY OF SPATIAL DATA FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

2016 ◽  
Vol III-4/W1 ◽  
pp. 139-144
Author(s):  
T. Kliment ◽  
V. Cetl ◽  
H. Tomič ◽  
J. Lisiak ◽  
M. Kliment
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Data ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Property Tax ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Quality Level ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Geospatial Information ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Participatory Gis

Nowadays, the availability of authoritative geospatial features of various data themes is becoming wider on global, regional and national levels. The reason is existence of legislative frameworks for public sector information and related spatial data infrastructure implementations, emergence of support for initiatives as open data, big data ensuring that online geospatial information are made available to digital single market, entrepreneurs and public bodies on both national and local level. However, the availability of authoritative reference spatial data linking the geographic representation of the properties and their owners are still missing in an appropriate quantity and quality level, even though this data represent fundamental input for local governments regarding the register of buildings used for property tax calculations, identification of illegal buildings, etc. We propose a methodology to improve this situation by applying the principles of participatory GIS and VGI used to collect observations, update authoritative datasets and verify the newly developed datasets of areas of buildings used to calculate property tax rates issued to their owners. The case study was performed within the district of the City of Požega in eastern Croatia in the summer 2015 and resulted in a total number of 16072 updated and newly identified objects made available online for quality verification by citizens using open source geospatial technologies.

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