Measuring Fiscal Decentralization: Exploring the IMF’s Databases

International Monetary Fund

No 2011/126, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: Conventional wisdom postulates that there are benefits from decentralizing government finances but there is little empirical evidence about actual country practices. This paper presents data on fiscal decentralization for about 80 countries over a period of about 20 years (1990-2008) from the IMF’s Government Finance Statistics Yearbook (GFSY), the only global database with fiscal data for several levels of government. The data show that in many countries, revenue collection remains relatively more centralized than expenditures and that employment tends to be concentrated in lower levels of government. Except for transition economies, the levels of decentralization are relatively stable over the time period. The findings are shown by degree of economic development, constitutional power arrangements, and geographic area, broadly confirming key factors identified in the literature as determining the extent of fiscal decentralization.

Keywords: WP; government level; country; government; central government; Fiscal federalism; fiscal centralization; government finance statistics; government finance statistic; intra government grant; tax effort; General government; indicated number country; country case studies; standard deviation; decentralized country; country example; a number of country; public goods; Employee contributions; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30
Date: 2011-06-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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