Looking Beyond Conventional Intergovernmental Fiscal Frameworks: Principles, Realities, and Neglected Issues

Paul Smoke
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Paul Smoke: Asian Development Bank Institute

No 606, ADBI Working Papers from Asian Development Bank Institute

Abstract: Fiscal decentralization and intergovernmental fiscal relations reform have become nearly ubiquitous in developing countries. Performance, however, has often been disappointing in terms of both policy formulation and outcomes. The dynamics underlying these results have been poorly researched. Available literature focuses heavily on policy and institutional design concerns framed by public finance, fiscal federalism, and public management principles. The literature tends to explain unsatisfactory outcomes largely as a result of some combination of flawed design and management of intergovernmental fiscal systems, insufficient capacity, and lack of political will. These factors are important, but there is room to broaden the analysis in at least two potentially valuable ways. First, much can be learned by more robustly examining how national and local political and bureaucratic forces shape the policy space, providing opportunities for and placing constraints on effective and sustainable reform. Second, the analysis would benefit from moving beyond design to considering how to implement reform more strategically.

Keywords: fiscal decentralization; intergovernmental relations; political economy; strategic implementation; Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H70 H71 H72 H73 H77 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2016-12-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe
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