A comparative analysis of shifting fiscal powers in twelve federal countries.

This paper argues that the World Bank should follow a systemic approach to developing guidance on public expenditure reform. Suggested approaches are to: determine an appropriate role for government and its various agents and specify their partnership with the civil society and the private sector; clarify the goals of reform and specify performance monitoring and evaluation indicators; target unproductive and inequitable expenditures from elimination; emphasize poverty alleviation; and promote equity and adopt general guidelines on policy environment goals for external assistance.

Developing countries continue to make widespread use of tax policy instruments to promote industrial and technological development. The actual effect of these instruments on business activity and government revenues, however, remains an open question. This volume takes an important first step in quantifying the investment incentives on business decisions related to production and investment. In addition, the book suggests the consequences of such incentives for government revenues. It will be of interest to students and scholars of public finance, industrial organization, and developmental...

The globalization of information--satellite TV, internet, phone and fax--serve to enhance citizens' awareness of their rights, obligations, options and alternatives and strengthens demands for greater accountability from the public sector. However, the power of accountability is significantly reduced if citizens are unable to measure their government's performance in a meaningful way, which is precisely the topic of this timely book. The abstract concept of 'government performance' can only be an effective tool in public debate when there are concrete statistics measuring performance and...

Accountability of government to citizens--the idea that the public sector must answer to the people for its performance--is the foundation for good governance. Under good governance, public expenditures are allocated to maximize welfare, revenues are collected efficiently, and the public at large has access to a number of public services including water and sanitation, infrastructure, education and health. Unfortunately in many developing countries, the people suffer the results of dysfunctional governance systems that fail to provide even minimal levels of vital public services. This happens...

For various reasons--whether philosophical, political, humanitarian, or by institutional mandate--people are concerned for the well being of the most vulnerable groups in society: women, the poor, and the elderly. Some would even measure the value of a political system by how well it cares for the least of its members. Related to this is the orientation of government toward the public more generally and the extent that it listens and responds to its citizens. More specifically, it is the rules and norms--the institutional framework--of government through which it takes into account the...

The design of a federal system to deal with growth, stabilization, and regional and local development issues is the primary concern of this volume, edited by Anwar Shah. The book provides analytical tools to address issues arising from globalization, localization, and regional integration. It discusses tax harmonization issues associated with subnational value added tax administration. It provides a framework for fiscal discipline in a federal system. Lessons from international experiences from policies to deal with lagging regions are drawn. The book empirically examines the effect of fiscal...

The design of intergovernmental fiscal transfers has a strong bearing on efficiency and equity of public service provision and accountable local governance. This book provides a comprehensive one-stop window/source of materials to guide practitioners and scholars on design and worldwide practices in intergovernmental fiscal transfers and their implications for efficiency, and equity in public services provision as well as accountable governance.

This book provides a new institutional economics perspective on alternative models of local governance, offering a comprehensive view of local government organization and finance in the developing world. The experiences of ten developing/transition economies are reviewed to draw lessons of general interest in strengthening responsive, responsible, and accountable local governance. The book is written in simple user friendly language to facilitate a wider readership by policy makers and practitioners in addition to students and scholars of public finance, economics and politics.

In the past three or four decades, public finance theorists and practitioners have struggled to identify and design institutional arrangements to help close the gap between the preferences of voters and the mix of public services actually delivered. Participatory budgeting is potentially a good approach. This book presents an authoritative guide to the principles and practice of participatory budgeting, providing a careful analysis of the potentials of participatory budgeting in strengthening inclusive and accountable governance as well as risks associated with interest group capture of...