The Effects of Fiscal Effort in Tunisia: An Evidence from the ARDL Bound Testing Approach

The purpose of this paper is to examine the various structural determinants of revenue and tax effort in Tunisia. We used on the empirical study an ARDL model to estimate the dynamic equation of fiscal potential and its structural and non-structural determinants covering the period of 1996–2017 in Tunisia. The empirical results show that before 2010, Tunisia fully exploited its fiscal potential, and the tax effort was above unity. After 2010 this trend was reversed. Despite the increase in the tax burden, Tunisia is below potential. The results showed that Tunisia is facing dramatic difficulties in mobilizing more tax revenue with this same taxpayer base. As a result, it is called upon to orient reform actions towards two aspects: broadening the taxpayer base to guarantee more tax fairness and adopting an awareness and motivation strategy aimed at greater tax compliance. Tunisia should adopt reforms that aim to eliminate the flat-rate regime and put in place advantages and procedures to facilitate and motivate the transition from informal to formal. Finally, it would be wise to further regulate cash payments and ensure the application of the legal rules governing the matter. In order to optimize the allocation of budgetary resources and ease the pressure on public finances, it would be appropriate, even with a delay in relation to the legislation to fight tax evasion and fraud by improving the human and material resources made available to the tax administration and consolidating its digitalization efforts.

Kinerja Keuangan Daerah Kabupaten Sukoharjo Ditinjau dari Perspektif Otonomi Daerah

Regional finance has a pivotal role in regional autonomy because regional finance reflects the ability of regions in running the local government. One of the tools to analyze local government financial performance is ratio analysis. The purpose of this study was to determine how the regional financial performance of Sukoharjo Regency in terms of regional autonomy perspective. This research uses descriptive quantitative method. The data used in this research is secondary in the form of financial report data Sukoharjo regency in 2015-2019 were obtained using the time series technique. The analysis results show that the financial performance of Sukoharjo regency is still not optimal. This is indicated by lack of ability to extract local revenue known from the low of DDF ratio, DOF ratio, Fiscal capacity and fiscal effort. Other than that, low independence ratio indicates that the regional dependence on central financial is still high.

Analysis of the potential and fiscal effort of the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union

This article aimed to analyse the fiscal potential of member countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union Commission (WAEMU) space. This issue seems to be relevant insofar as fiscal resources are a function of the states’ budget. The method of analysis used in this paper is the stochastic frontier model of Kumbakar, Lien & Hardaker (2014) for the period 1987-2017. The results showed that the tax burden is determined by structural factors and that in most countries the tax potential can be further exploited. Similarly, the tax effort can be improved for a more visible performance in terms of resource mobilisation in the majority of countries. These results can contribute to improving the choice and decisions of the WAEMU Commission on fiscal policies.

Determinants of fiscal effort in sub-Saharan African countries: Does conflict matter?

This study investigates the determinants of fiscal effort in sub-Saharan African (SSA) within the framework of fiscal reaction functions. Whereas previous studies focusing on SSA have mainly considered the economic non-debt determinants this study accounts for the role of conflict given its persistence in many SSA countries. It employs a variety of panel econometric methods that are applicable in tackling the problem of endogeneity. Specifically the study employs the instrumental variables fixed effects, the two-step generalised method of moments (GMM) and the traditional two-stage least squares techniques. Mainly the evidence shows that although SSA governments have made fiscal adjustments in response to the escalating levels of debt, conflict impacts negatively on this response in SSA. Furthermore, the results affirm the presence of fiscal fatigue in SSA’s fiscal reaction function. Recommendations based on these findings are discussed.

Subsidising Formal Childcare Versus Grandmothers' Time: Which Policy is More Effective?

This article quantifies the relative effectiveness of childcare subsidies and subsidies on grandmothers’ time on married mothers’ employment and fertility rates, paying special attention to heterogeneous effects. A heterogeneous agent model, populated by married households who make decisions related to labour supply and fertility, and the Spanish economy are used as a benchmark for calibration. The results indicate that childcare subsidies conditional on employment are more effective than subsidies on grandmothers’ time to foster the participation of married mothers in the labour force. However, they induce women to work fewer hours, unless after-school hours are also subsidised. This overtime subsidy is also necessary for the fertility rate to increase, but it implies a significant adjustment in tax rates to maintain the same fiscal balance. If the aim is simply to raise the employment rate of mothers of children aged 2 years or younger, then subsidising childcare costs only is more effective because the fiscal effort is lower. Regarding the heterogeneous effects, in all the policies studied, the growth in female employment is mainly accounted for by the behaviour of women without tertiary education while that of fertility is accounted for by women with tertiary education. Considerations related to inequality and distributional effects of these policies would also seem to favour childcare subsidies versus subsidies on grandmothers’ time.

Employment Equity for People With IDD Across the Lifespan: The Effects of State Funding

In the last decade, major strides have been made to elevate the importance of employment for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Despite progress, improvement in employment outcomes remain modest. Using extant data, a sample of 9,871 adults with IDD accessing Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services waiver services across 33 states were studied using hierarchical modeling to understand the effects of age on employment as well as assess how state fiscal effort toward integrated employment services affects employment equity across the lifespan. Key findings showed young and older adults experienced the lowest employment outcomes. The effects of age, however, were moderated in states with higher fiscal effort to integrated employment services. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.

Economic and social consequences of human mobility restrictions under COVID-19

In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, several national governments have applied lockdown restrictions to reduce the infection rate. Here we perform a massive analysis on near–real-time Italian mobility data provided by Facebook to investigate how lockdown strategies affect economic conditions of individuals and local governments. We model the change in mobility as an exogenous shock similar to a natural disaster. We identify two ways through which mobility restrictions affect Italian citizens. First, we find that the impact of lockdown is stronger in municipalities with higher fiscal capacity. Second, we find evidence of a segregation effect, since mobility contraction is stronger in municipalities in which inequality is higher and for those where individuals have lower income per capita. Our results highlight both the social costs of lockdown and a challenge of unprecedented intensity: On the one hand, the crisis is inducing a sharp reduction of fiscal revenues for both national and local governments; on the other hand, a significant fiscal effort is needed to sustain the most fragile individuals and to mitigate the increase in poverty and inequality induced by the lockdown.

Assessment of fiscal effort and voluntary tax compliance in Peru.

This study examines the fiscal effort and voluntary compliance in the payment of taxes in Peru. It determines that in 2014, the Peruvian economy collected only 52.8% of its total tax potential. Then trough an experiment, it is shown that dissuasive policies only do not explain the whole phenomenon of tax compliance; on the contrary, some psychological factors, named by the literature as “Tax Morale”, should be considered in such a study. Thus, if Peru expects to join the OECD (it being a goal for celebrating the bicentennial of its independence), it must improve tax compliance to standards equal to those of more developed countries and some non-dissuasive and low-cost public policies designed on tax-morale research may help to achieve this goal.

Are Member States’ Budgetary Policies Adhering to the EU Fiscal Rules?

Harmonised data from the 2013 to 2018 Stability and Convergence Programmes (SCPs) are used to assess whether member states are acting to meet EU fiscal requirements and, in particular, their medium-term objectives (MTOs). EU AMECO data are employed to check whether planned fiscal policy, set out in the SCPs, materialises ex-post. The main finding is that planned changes in the fiscal stance aim towards meeting the MTO when that target has not yet been attained but less effort occurs in practice. Member states who have already met their MTO loosen their fiscal stance. The policy message is that, in general, the enhanced, post-crisis EU fiscal framework is delivering budgetary policy that contributes to avoiding excessive deficit and debt positions. The fiscal consolidation actually undertaken, however, is less than planned and the upside of the economic cycle does not see greater effort towards meeting MTOs. Moreover, those member states with prior excessive deficits do not make, nor plan, any additional fiscal effort over other member states also striving to meet their MTO. The policy reaction to the economic cycle is pro-cyclical in nature.