Knowledge

 
Rethinking Regional Development Policy-Making

This report addresses questions related to the improvement of the design and delivery of regional development policies: What can governments do to enhance economic development in regions and cities ? What lessons can be drawn from theory and practice to ensure public spending and investments contribute to regional development as effectively as possible ? At a time of increasing pressure on public finances it is paramount to enhance the effectiveness of regional policy governance instruments to add value to public spending and investment. Bringing together frontier economic theory and country practices regarding performance frameworks, financial instruments, policy conditionalities, contractual arrangements and behavioural insights in regional policy, this report identifies cross-cutting lessons to help policy-makers manage common trade-offs when designing public expenditure and investment programmes for the development of regions and cities.

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UN-Habitat Municipal Finance Handbook Advances NUA, SDG 11

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD, 2018)

The UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has launched a resource guide on municipal finance, highlighting the importance for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) and the SDGs, particularly SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities). The handbook provides city leaders with a range of financing solutions that emphasise sustainability, inclusion and financial autonomy, aiming to contribute to discussions on how cities can finance large capital expenditures, infrastructure maintenance and operation, and public services.

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Local Governance, Decentralisation and Anti-Corruption in Bangladesh and Nigeria

ODI, 2018

This report by ODI aims to deepen understandings of the links between decentralised governance and corruption, and the implications of such linkages and dynamics for the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures at the local level. It synthesises the findings from two in-depth case studies on decentralised governance and corruption in Bangladesh and Nigeria.

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

Paul Smoke, ADBI Working Paper No. 606 (2016)

The working paper analyses the poor Performance of fiscal decentralisation and intergovernmental fiscal Relations reforms in Terms of both policy formulation and outcomes.

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Subnational governments around the world: Structure and finance

OECD and UCLG, Global Observatory on Local Finances (2016)

The OECD and (UCLG) launched this statistical study in October 2016 at the

UCLG Summit in Bogota. It is a first attempt to build a systematic data compilation on local finances on 101 countries in the world, based on quantitative and qualitative data.

 
Is Fiscal Decentralization Delivering on its Promises? A Review of the Theory and Practice in Developing Countries

G. Mascagni, IDS Working Paper No. 466 (2016)

This paper analyzes whether the theoretical benefits of fiscal decentralisation are achieved in practice. After providing an overview of the main issues and challenges in the design and implementation of fiscal decentralisation, the paper reviews the existing evidence on the impact of fiscal decentralisation on economic and political outcomes at the local level. By doing this it aims to assess whether decentralisation delivered on its promises.

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International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) Brief 12: Central-Local Government Relationships in Property Taxation

International Centre for Tax and Development (2017)

ICTD’s policy brief examines strengths and weaknesses of decentralised vs. centralised approaches for the collection and administration of property taxes. Furthermore, it analyses, which incentives the respective approaches contain for government authorities to gather taxes, as well as the political challenges that come about with a rearrangement of central-local relations. The policy brief advocates that the question on its own, of whether to centralise or decentralise the tax system, constitutes an oversimplified approach to the problem and states that since property taxation contains a multitude of distinct processes, the situation of taxes at the national or local level is highly context-dependent. Therefore ICTD first provides a list of general arguments for taxing property at a local versus central level, before delving into the key elements of property taxation in greater depth.

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Decentralisation in a Globalised World – Consequences and Opportunities

OECD (2018)

This OECD working paper on decentralisation in a globalised world and fiscal federalism addresses the growing importance of information technology and knowledge-based production and the challenging problems they pose for federations. The authors summarise the difficulties that traditional decentralised federations face in addressing problems of competitiveness, innovation and inequality brought about by globalisation. Adapting to these challenges involves rethinking the roles of various levels of government and rebalancing them appropriately.

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River Basin Management and Fiscal Decentralisation: Mutually Supportive or Counterproductive? A Case Study of Mongolia

German Development Institute (DIE), (2018)

In the last decade, Mongolia has undergone parallel processes of institutionalising River Basin Organisations (RBOs) and of fiscal decentralisation. River basin management calls for managing water resources at the river basin level in order to promote a sustainable resource use. However, often RBOs remain underfunded. Fiscal decentralisation involves shifting certain fiscal responsibilities to lower levels of government. Against this background, this paper by the German Development Institute (DIE) asks whether fiscal decentralisation supports or counteracts river basin management in the Mongolian case.

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Fiscal Decentralisation and Inclusive Growth

OECD (2018)

This publication by OECD explores intergovernmental fiscal frameworks, which drive the division of roles of the central and sub-national governments, and critically influence growth and the inclusiveness of an economy. Consequently, the key aspects of intergovernmental fiscal relations and country performance are analysed, and their relation to inclusive growth is being assessed.

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