A POLICYMAKER'S GUIDE TO FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION

Decentralization has always been understood to mean the proper location, by level of government, of various taxes, spending programs, grants, and regulations. In "Threading the Fiscal Labyrinth: Some Issues in Fiscal Decentralization", Richard M. Bird tries to develop a guide to decentrali...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNational tax journal Vol. 46; no. 2; pp. 229 - 235
Main Author GRAMLICH, EDWARD M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chicago, Ill National Tax Association 01.06.1993
The University of Chicago Press
University of Chicago Press
Subjects
Analysis
Budget deficits
Comparative studies
Costs
Decentralization
Decentralization in government
Economic aspects
Federal government
Finance
Fiscal policy
Foreign aid
Government
Government grants
Government services
Government spending
Guidelines
Income taxes
Intergovernmental fiscal relations
Jurisdiction
Local taxation
Macroeconomics
Management
Municipal taxes
Policy making
Property taxes
Public sector
Public services
Roads & highways
Subsidies
SYMPOSIUM ON FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION
Tax benefits
Tax rates
User fees
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Summary:Decentralization has always been understood to mean the proper location, by level of government, of various taxes, spending programs, grants, and regulations. In "Threading the Fiscal Labyrinth: Some Issues in Fiscal Decentralization", Richard M. Bird tries to develop a guide to decentralization strategies for policymakers. Bird focuses on taxes and grants. However, a guide to these strategies can be developed from a different perspective; looking at guides for policy with respect to each of Musgrave's (1959) 3 public sector branches of government - allocation, distribution, and macroeconomics. On the spending side, the basic allocation issue involves the spatial domain of benefits from public service programs. With respect to distribution, there are generally 2 types of distributional programs in modern societies: human capital type programs aimed at helping people earn higher incomes in the long run and income transfer type programs aimed at protecting peoples' incomes in the short run. Macrodemand or supply shocks can often have differential effects, and the time seems right for some new thinking about decentralization strategies.
ISSN:0028-0283
1944-7477
DOI:10.1086/NTJ41789012