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The incidence of paper mills in the Três Lagoas region, as of 2009, brought a series of commitments and consequences to the settlers of the agrarian reform. With the offer of unlimited tax exemptions, public financing through BNDES and other industrial development programs and projects, the industries established and started the processes for the duplication of their industrial plants. Already, the settlers are at the mercy, therefore, can not obtain access to investments, nor to the financing of public banks and other development agencies. In this perspective, the only source of financing for family agricultural production ends up being the paper mills themselves, through their PDS - sustainable development plans and programs. Only in the settlement where the research was given there are 181 lots, but less than 20 were benefited by the financing. In this sense, the form and the model of financing, the speed and volume of resources contributed are at the absolute and exclusive discretion of the own pulleys, which has social and economic repercussions among the settlers, creating as a zone of imprisonment of the settlers to the paper, here called cages of paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tax is the primary source of revenue for governments to finance public expenditures and provide social services that promote growth, stability, and equitable income distribution. However, the administration and enforcement of tax laws and policies often lead to disputes. In a federal system of government like Nigeria's, where the different levels of government can impose taxes, there is a possibility of dispute between these levels of government. This paper aims to examine the various avenues provided under Nigerian law for resolving tax disputes. It adopts the doctrinal research methodology, using relevant statutory provisions, treaties, scholarly journal articles, books, etc. The study found that given the importance of taxation in economic development, Nigeria's current dispute resolution mechanisms need to be revised and aligned with global best practices for dispute resolution. The paper concludes by recommending that Nigeria's tax dispute settlement mechanism be extended to allow the arbitrability of tax disputes to expedite settling tax disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Anglophone neoliberal jurisdictions, policy highlights the private goods associated with higher education but largely neglects the sector's contributions to public good not measurable as economic values, including non-pecuniary individual benefits and collective social outcomes. Governments are silent on the existence and funding of most public goods. The paper reports on understandings of the public good role of higher education in England after nearly a decade of full marketisation. The study, part of a cross-national comparison of 11 countries, consisted of a review of major policy reports, and 24 semi-structured interviews in universities (13) and among higher education policy professionals (11) including regulators, national organisations and experts. England has no policy language for talking about outcomes of higher education other than attenuated performative outputs such as graduate salaries, research impact, knowledge exchange and widening participation, understood as individual access to education as a private good. Awareness of multiple public goods has been suppressed to justify successive fee increases and the imposition of a market in the centralised English system. This has coincided with a shift from direct government funding and collaborative stewardship by state and institutions, to student funding and top-down regulation. Nevertheless, most interviewees, including regulators, advocated an open-ended public good role and provided many examples of public goods in higher education, though the concepts lacked clarity. The policy notion of a zero-sum relation of private and public outcomes, corresponding to the split of private/public costs, was rejected in favour of a positive-sum relation of private and public outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the financialisation literature, scholars have turned their attention to the state, exploring the adoption of financial activities by state actors, paying less attention to the limits of state financialisation. This paper explores these limits using the case of social impact bonds (SIBs). Pioneered in the UK in 2010 and subsequently trialed in some 35 countries, SIBs use private capital to fund social programs, with governments providing a return based on the degree of success. Despite expectations of dramatic growth, the SIB model has never truly taken hold. Based on the rollout of SIBs in the UK, Israel, and Canada, the paper considers the challenges encountered by the SIB enterprise as a form of financialised statecraft and identifies three barriers: (1) resistance to political agendas of state financialisation; (2) clashes between finance and public sector cultures; (3) financial innovation seen as 'risk' and 'disruption' to entrenched socio-technical routines. These barriers reveal tensions both within the state itself and between finance and the public sector, and indicate the importance of thinking about the limits and failures of state financialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are good reasons to expect that attributes of local public finance may impact urban land use and, specifically, sprawl. A detailed and novel investigation of U.S. metropolitan areas published in 20061 provides substantial insights into the causes of sprawl, but it overlooks the main characteristics of local public finance (taxes and user charges). Using a subset of the data matched to city public finance data, a parallel analysis gives insight into the impacts of local public finance on sprawl. There is evidence that greater reliance on local property taxes reduces sprawl. The evidence that user charges (primarily for water, sewerage and solid waste services) could have a similar effect is weak but suggestive. The combined effects of a high reliance on property taxes and user charges (compared to typical levels) might reduce sprawl by as much as one-third. For Calgary and Edmonton, this means that the current heavy reliance on property taxes in both cities reduces sprawl and that the adoption of alternative local taxes--that reduce reliance on property taxes--is expected to increase sprawl. Further analysis of the impacts of local public finance on urban sprawl is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how natural disasters affect local public finances and their interplay with intergovernmental transfers and external resources. Exploiting the randomized nature of the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most devastating natural disasters in recent history, we document its causal effect on the local government fiscal dynamics. Combining data on local government finance with reports on the level of damages and using difference-in-differences with instrumental variable to analyze the data, we show that local public revenue and expenditures remain largely unaffected, except for debt payments. However, we find important heterogeneity in local revenue responses: poorer municipalities raised comparatively lower revenue in the aftermath of the Typhoon. We also provide evidence that external funding did not lead to lower tax collection efforts, but instead leads to higher local expenditures, suggesting that disaster aid does not cause a moral hazard problem in local governments' spending decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fundamental governance challenge facing central authorities is how to mitigate the prevalent local protection against non-local firms. We document that judicial fiscal centralization—transferring local courts' budgetary power from local governments to provincial finance departments—significantly increases the winning probability of non-local plaintiffs (defendants) against local defendants (plaintiffs) if lawsuits are tried in the defendant's (plaintiff's) jurisdiction. However, such centralization exhausts local governments' information advantage in keeping local courts accountable. Specifically, the reform shifts local courts' expenditures from public affairs to private welfare and breeds judge corruption. Interestingly, as gifts in the form of pro-local rulings from courts to governments disappear, governments' day-to-day support to courts also weakens, deteriorating the courts' performance. Overall, our paper highlights the depth of the judiciary's political embeddedness and the complexity of fighting against local protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers in this issue deal with the transformation from public finance to public economics at a theoretical and philosophical level in the mid-twentieth century. Our introduction situates these papers within their intellectual context. To do so, we provide a broad outline of the trajectory of the field beginning with the transformation of welfare economics. Acknowledging the structuring role of Richard Musgrave and James Buchanan for the field, the papers highlight the key role also played by Paul Samuelson in the transition to public economics. Moreover, they underscore how ethical issues were formalised into normative economics at this critical juncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper serves as an introduction to the themed issue on "Post-Crisis Fiscal Geographies." In it, we review the growing body of work on fiscal policy and geography, with particular emphasis on taxation and tax policy. We argue that geographers and other scholars of political economy should pay greater attention to the state's active capacities, particularly during the long troughs between the crises which tend to receive the bulk of scholarly and popular attention. We situate the three papers that comprise the special issue within the broader literature, closing by suggesting the need to broaden fiscal geographies scholarship beyond tax, as well as raising the possibilities for justice that could arise from closer engagement with fiscal policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess employment in Georgia's public sector and study job creation factors. During the last decade, employment in the public sector has increased, and its share in total employment is, on average, 22.5%. This figure is high considering the real expenditures of the government, and the amount of delivered goods and services since some countries like Georgia ensure the provision of public services with relatively fewer human resources. On the other hand, the paper demonstrates job creation factors in the sector through regression analysis. Such a factor is politicians' rent-seeking - creating jobs for influential groups and ensuring political stability. This is more characteristic of those countries that lack democracy and the rule of law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents two unpublished scholarly papers on topics of economics written in the 1950s. The first was written by Alan T. Peacock for the Lionel Robbins seminar at the London School of Economics and is titled "The theory of the public economy." The second, entitled "On the theory of the public economy," was by Peacock and Jack Wiseman and was rejected for publication in the scholarly periodical "Review of Economics and Statistics." The papers consider subjects including theories of public expenditure, public finance, and economic theories of social welfare.

The article presents an essay about the importance of dealing with psychosocial problems and child advocacy which are central to child health. In this essay, the author recounts her exam-room encounter with a teenager who can not read the instructions for his asthma medications. She appears to say that to treat childhood afflictions in the 21st century, social systems and adequate public funding are needed rather than wonder drugs.

Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) are crucial for promoting accountability and transparency, especially in countries such as Indonesia, where corruption and government fraud are widespread. These institutions help the public monitor the government and ensure that public funds are used effectively and efficiently. Achieving good governance requires close collaboration between people and SAI. This study aims to emphasizes the importance of people's participation in Indonesia SAI (Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan/BPK) to identify public issues for auditing purposes. Every year, the BPK conducts over 500 audits, including financial, performance, and auditing with special purposes. BPK produces over 9,000 findings that the government needs to follow. This paper highlights the success stories of participation audits in the Philippines and South Korea, and how Indonesian SAI can learn from both. By working together with the public, audit reports can benefit stakeholders and contribute to better governance. The study employs qualitative approach that facilitates the examination of real-life examples and case studies, such as the experiences of the Commission on Audit (COA) in the Philippines and the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) in South Korea. The results demonstrate community participation in the audit process can lead to more beneficial reports for stakeholders and contribute to improved governance. Thus, close collaboration between the public and BPK is essential to ensure the effective and efficient use of public funds, as well as to strengthen government accountability and transparency. Therefore, community participation in BPK audits is key to achieving good governance and ensuring responsible use of public funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local government is closer to the citizens and serves as a vehicle for democracy and service delivery in South Africa. Municipalities in South Africa face a significant challenge when it comes to managing public finances to provide effective and efficient services. Corruption, financial mismanagement, wasteful and fruitless expenditure, irregular expenditures, governance failure, lack of consequence, management, insufficient skills, and capacity are among the challenges. These factors have delivered an enormous setback to service delivery, and citizens are bearing the brunt of the burden. The most difficult situation in local government is that municipalities' finances are deteriorating year after year. According to the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA), "the audit outcomes were in a poor state at the end of the previous administration's term, and this state did not improve in 2021-22." It is critical for the local government sphere to promote financial sustainability because most South African citizens rely on government services because the economy no longer provides favourable economic benefits such as employment that citizens can leverage. The goal of this paper is to investigate how professionalising South African municipal public finances can help to stabilise public funds. The qualitative method was used, which included a review of secondary sources on the topic at hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries such as Nigeria have a common enemy of economic, social and political development – corruption. The need to end corruption was one of the major reasons the military gave for forcefully taking over the seat of government in Nigeria. Even when the country returned to civil rule, opposition parties have accused the government in power of mismanagement of public funds and often promised to end corruption if elected into power. It is an incontrovertible truth that one area where corruption exists in Nigeria is Public Procurement. However, in 2007 the Nigerian government enacted the Public Procurement Act (PPA) to battle corruption in its procurement process. Despite this, the nation's procurement process is still characterized by irregularities as evident from the many cases of infractions of the procurement guidelines in some government quarters. This paper undertakes a review of the PPA (2007) vis-à-vis its provisions on anti-corruption in comparison with international best practices to identify any missing link. The study reveals that though the PPA has improved the procurement process in Nigeria, it cannot sufficiently eliminate fraud and corrupt practices because it has some loopholes. These loopholes include, amongst others: non-provision for an automated tendering system, passive roles played by the civil society organizations/ professional bodies in procurement implementation and the absence of an independent administrative review body. The study, therefore, recommends the reform of the PPA which will incorporate the identified missing links to battle corruption in public procurement effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives vary in their earmarking behavior. After a 10-year moratorium, Congress enabling members to request small grants for community programs in their districts in the 2021 appropriations process. As part of a reform designed to limit corruption and wasteful spending, members had to submit written justifications for the grants, which provides insight into how members of Congress view their role as representatives. In performing a content analysis on 3007 earmark justifications, we find that Democrats are more likely to name the specific social groups comprising their party coalition in their justifications; Republicans rarely do so. Democrats are also more likely to request grants on their core partisan priorities, while Republicans tend to focus on large local infrastructure projects that are seemingly unrelated to their national priorities. Finally, we find some, but limited, evidence that earmark requests are a result of the different kinds of districts that members represent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussion on reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries began at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties in 2005, and the agenda for "reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+)" was introduced under the UNFCCC. The REDD+ framework was developed with the expectation that it would significantly contribute to climate change mitigation at a relatively low cost and produce benefits for both developed and developing countries. Finance is a key element of REDD+ implementation, and many financial sources, approaches, and mechanisms have supported REDD+-related activities in various developing countries. However, the comprehensive challenges and lessons learned for REDD+ finance and its governance have not been fully explored. This paper reviews the relevant literature to understand the challenges for REDD+ finance and its governance in two areas—(1) REDD+ finance aligned with the UNFCCC and (2) REDD+-related finance outside the UNFCCC—which have developed differently and have different implications. This paper first identifies the six key elements of REDD+ finance and its governance across the two fields, and then reviews the related challenges and lessons learned with respect to public and private finance. The challenges for REDD+ finance and its governance aligned with the UNFCCC include enhancing the performance of REDD+ finance using mainly public finance, such as results-based finance and the jurisdictional approach. In contrast, the challenges regarding REDD+-related finance outside the UNFCCC include enhancing the engagement of the private sector in REDD+ finance, mainly targeting the project level, and the relationship between voluntary carbon markets and other investment and finance mechanisms. This paper also identifies the common challenges across REDD+ finance and its governance in the two fields. These challenges include the need to enhance linkages between REDD+ and other objectives, such as carbon neutrality/net-zero, deforestation-free supply chains, and nature-based solutions, as well as the need to develop learning systems for REDD+ finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human Resource Development (HRD) is key for the achievement of macroeconomic outcomes such as economic growth and development. This is particularly true in development-deficient sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In addition, HRD is vital for the successful delivery of international commitments such as Agenda 2030 and aspirations such as national visions. In SSA countries, largely due to increased demand for HRD in the face of post-2007 and Covid-19 fiscal strictures, the public financing of pre-service HRD is problematic. The purpose of the paper is to test the applicability of this situation in Botswana. The paper, rooted in interpretive research philosophy, adopted the qualitative case study approach. This was a desktop study that used secondary data sources. It concluded that the Botswana case mirrors the SSA situation. Concluding, the general lesson ensuing from this case is that there is a need for sustainable HRD financing in the sub-region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food system resilience to climate change is uniquely imperative for bringing Sustainable Development Goals within reach and leaving no one behind. Food systems in East and Southeast Asia are interacting with planetary boundaries and are adversely affected by extreme weather-related events. A practical question for East and Southeast Asian stakeholders is how to foster climateresilient food systems in the face of lingering food system vulnerabilities and policy gaps. This paper reviews food system vulnerabilities and policy responses to climate change. In the policy-based review, this paper compares the economy-wide and agriculture-specific targets of low-carbon development across East and Southeast Asia. With China and member states of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations as case studies, multilevel policies in building and financing climate-resilient food systems are further synthesized. The findings confirm significant differences in agriculture-specific emission goals and public financing supports across East and Southeast Asian nations. With an objective to break practical barriers and finance climate-resilient food systems for the future, this paper recommends defining agriculture-specific greenhouse gas emission goals, reorienting the public finance scheme and enhancing mechanisms for the synergy of public and private resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative hubs are institutional organization of newly emerging creative industries. Economic activities associated with creative industries are very often business-oriented and strongly independent. However, there are often needs for public sector. The aim of paper is to analyze the situation in the Czech Republic and assess the involvement and benefits of the public sector towards the support of these business activities. Methodologically, the work is based on several approaches. Primarily, a database of Czech creative hubs was created as part of desk research. This was followed by quantitative questionnaire survey with representatives of creative hubs and qualitative research in the form of structured interviews with representatives of hubs and the public sector. It was found that without public finances and interest, Czech creative hubs cannot function in the long term. Financial support is therefore the most common form of public support. The main strength of hubs lies in the built community of members, offered services and networking. Conversely, the main weakness is the inability to secure sufficient funds and sponsors. Although public sector cooperation in the Czech Republic is still limited, many public representatives are beginning to realize the benefits of the creative economy and gradually implement it into policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tax increment financing (TIF) is a mechanism used by municipal governments throughout the United States to fund public and private urban development projects. This paper examines the trajectories of TIF in the state of California and the City of Chicago, where the expansion of TIF as a mechanism for publicly financed development is inextricable from disinvestments in social reproduction and the transformation of public funding for K-12 education. Taking seriously the divergent paths of TIF in each case, we argue that the framework of social reproduction helps expand the scope of TIF as a "policy in place," bringing into view other path and place-dependent factors that shape the adaptation and implementation of public finance mechanisms. Bridging the literature on urban policy and feminist political economy, we suggest that scholars must investigate the place-specific entanglements of social reproduction and public finance if we are to understand how mechanisms such as TIF are adopted, expanded, or curtailed within the broader framework of neoliberal urban governance. In making such an intervention, we expand on calls to attend to the ways public finance can heighten or mitigate economic inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper rediscovers the meaning and relevance of Luigi Einaudi's Scienza delle Finanze, which still aspired to a reflection on man and good polity. It reconstructs some key moments in Einaudi's thought: the vision of the fiscal process, the legal-political speculation, the last reflections aimed at going beyond both the Italian Tradition in Public Finance and Wicksell's scheme, up to the synthesis elaborated in the critical point theory. Einaudi shows why the fiscal process is at the heart of horizontal/vertical reciprocities and vicious/virtuous circles between society and state, and why a good polity needs free and morally responsible people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A history of the transformation of public finance into public economics necessarily involves an understanding of the tension between positive and normative statements, that is a history of how public economists dealt with Robbins's requirements that economists should not make normative statements. In this paper, we propose to contribute to this history by discussing and comparing the works of two major economists of the 20th century, Paul Samuelson and James Buchanan. We show that they both use the same strategy to deal with the positive/normative tension: they adopt a reduced scale of analysis to escape normative judgements – the family for Samuelson and small groups (clubs) for Buchanan. What they do manage at this level is to create examples or models which remove that normative response from the theorist, and ascribe it to the participants. The normative views of the theorist are not involved. Yet, when one shifts back to a larger scale, the positive element of the analysis is less clear, at least in Samuelson's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public expenditure theory is a late-comer to the field of public finance, despite laments over the lack of such a theory dating to the late 1800s. This paper documents and attempts to explain this transformation, locating its origins in Richard Musgrave's normative theory of the public household and the adoption by subsequent thinkers of new developments in welfare theory, which was seen to offer a theoretically sophisticated a vision of the state's role as a response to the problem of market failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the drivers of private investment in renewable energy by source of financing for 13 economies over the period 2008–2018, with a focus on a sub-panel of Asian economies. Sources of financing – asset finance, corporate research and development (R&D), public market, and venture capital and private equity – vary not only across years and renewable energy sources, but also across countries. Using a fixed effects panel model, this paper provides a first quantitative estimate of the effect of government renewable energy policies on private investment across different sources of financing, with four main findings. First, while government expenditure on R&D positively affects private investment from asset finance and corporate R&D, it is not the most important driver in terms of the magnitude of the elasticity. Second, feed-in tariffs have a particularly strong effect on stimulating renewable energy investment financed through public markets, with the findings particularly strong for the Asian sub-sample. Third, tax incentives have a mixed impact across sources of financing. Fourth, technology costs and energy prices have considerable effects on driving renewable energy investment from asset finance, with the impact notably more pronounced for the Asian sub-sample. Key policy insights To maximize the impact of government R&D, policies should aim to facilitate a smoother investment environment for the private sector in the areas of asset finance and corporate R&D. This could include targeted subsidies and tax relief measures. Enhanced FIT mechanisms should be developed, particularly in Asia, to leverage greater investment financed via publicly quoted markets. This could also include more favourable initial fiscal incentives and terms of agreement. Tax incentives should be used with caution. While tax incentives have a positive effect on investment in renewable energy overall, they may negatively affect investment financed by corporate R&D and venture capital and private equity, i.e. private financing sources that are crucial for technology R&D and manufacturing scale-up. Countries with lower regulatory quality may need to offer higher FIT rates for policies to be effective in attracting private investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many economies in the Western world have been through a regime shift towards fiscal austerity since the 1970s. Existing scholarship ascribes trends in austerity to globalisation or the influence of a new economic paradigm. This paper develops a different approach by stressing the strategic intervention of central banks in governments' fiscal decisions. It analyses archival documents from the German Federal Cabinet and the Bundesbank Council over more than two decades (1960–1981) and finds that the fiscal regime was shaped by changes in transnational institutions which the central bank used to strategically expand its institutional power within the larger macroeconomic framework. With the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, the Bundesbank was able to greatly increase its power resources while the government's powers diminished. The Bundesbank used its new powers to strategically 'overreach' into the fiscal sphere and 'bargain' with the government to achieve fiscal reforms. By shedding light on the interactions of global legal and economic developments and the micro-level strategies of state actors, the paper proposes a more complex view of the role of the state and brings state-actor strategies into our understanding of the grand shifts in economic policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changing dynamics of tax revenue and its responses to domestic and external shocks play a pivotal role in the discussion of the sustainability of public finance in small developing economies. However, the empirical literature on the response of tax revenue to various shocks in developing economies in the Pacific is sparse. Despite several tax reforms over the last decade, the spending plans of the Fijian government since the 2017/2018 budget announcements have stimulated frequent public discussions regarding the sustainability of public debt. Against this background, the main purpose of this paper is to investigate the response of tax revenue in Fiji - a small developing island economy, to external and domestic shocks using historical annual data covering more than five decades. This study uses unit root tests that account for single and multiple endogenous structural breaks and finds that tax revenue in Fiji is a non-stationary process, I (1) with break dates coinciding with tax reforms, general elections, and political coups. The findings reveal that tax reforms and political developments are possible important sources of shocks to tax revenue and have important policy implications. First, shocks to tax revenue will have persistent effects, with the effects of adverse shocks being transmitted to other related variables and sectors of the Fijian economy. Second, historical values of tax revenue cannot be used to formulate forecasts of tax revenue and policymakers should consider other determinants of tax revenue (for example, the share of the agriculture sector, trade volume, political stability, education, life expectancy, infant mortality rates, age composition of the population, urbanization, inflation rate, and corruption) for forecasting purposes. The evidence of non-stationarity indicates that future studies on tax revenue need to carefully reflect on the modeling technique to avoid spurious regressions. Furthermore, our findings reveal that temporary fiscal measures will not have a permanent effect on tax revenue and sustainable revenue growth requires focusing on long-term (rather than short-sighted) reforms. Thus, our findings underscore the importance of evidence-based policy reforms to improve the resilience, efficiency, and sustainability of the tax system in Fiji to shelter it from future adverse shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intensification of the EU's institutional action to ensure an appropriate level of energy efficiency demonstrates the key role of pro-saving measures and energy efficiency measures to achieve a climate-neutral economy by 2050. Achieving this goal is therefore also possible through energy performance contracting (EPC), which enables specialised entities called energy service companies (ESCOs) to operate in the market. The creation of an appropriate and favourable framework at the EU level for the use of EPCs does not imply an identical approach by all individual member states. For this reason, the domestic policy of one member state, Poland, was contrasted with the EU framework. Under the influence of the EU guidelines and regulations, the EPC legislations in Poland was amended. This provided a reason to analyse the importance of legal factors (conditions) in implementing the EPC model, especially from the perspective of public institutions. In light of the above, it was attempted to show whether legal regulations would be sufficient to increase the number and level of ESCO projects in public sector units and whether they would remove the barriers to EPC development that are seen in public–private partnerships and the impact of obligations under an energy efficiency improvement agreement on the level of government debt or public finance sector deficit. This paper adopts research methods that are typical to studying EPC topics; however, the research conducted here is theoretical (descriptive analysis) and of dogmatic legal in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are the engines of economic growth, drivers of structural and spatial transformation processes, and the generators of wealth. However, city finances in India are in an abysmal state, and its urban local bodies are progressively losing fiscal autonomy. The problem is deeply rooted in the hierarchy set up defined as per the fiscal federalism framework adopted by the nation. The objective of the paper is to critically review India's federalism, discuss its prevailing expenditure‐revenue assignment framework, and analyse the key issues in fiscal decentralization. This paper overviews the entire public finance system in India, brings out the anomalies in expenditure and revenue assignments between the higher levels of government and the urban local bodies, and addresses the areas of concerns at the urban local government level. It also suggests policy measures to put Indian urban local bodies on a strong footing in the public finance map of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the difference‐in‐differences method, this paper employs a unique government land transaction dataset at the individual level and investigates how much extra government revenue is generated by the Shanghai Disney Resort through land value appreciation in nearby areas. The results suggest that the Shanghai Disney project significantly increases the nearby land value and then increases local extra government revenue. The average annual extra growth rate was 9.81% (37.01 billion CNY) of Shanghai government revenue from 2009 to 2015 through nearby land value appreciation after the approval of the Shanghai Disney project in 2009. There also exists a heterogeneous impact of the Shanghai Disney project on different types of land value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper investigates the joint relationship between economic growth, income inequality and fiscal adjustments using a panel of 47 Japanese prefectures from 1998 to 2017. Design/methodology/approach: To assess jointly fiscal adjustment impacts on growth and inequality and to take into account the interdependence between these variables, the authors use a simultaneous equation model and estimate it by using the three-stage least squares estimation method. Findings: The results show evidence of a trade-off between growth and inequality through fiscal adjustments. They reveal that first, fiscal adjustments have contractionary effects on growth. Second, they highlight the disparity between urban and rural taxpayers. Third, they provide evidence of a trade-off between fiscal adjustments and inequality through the labor market. Research limitations/implications: Based on the literature, the composition of fiscal adjustments is a crucial factor in analyzing fiscal adjustment impacts on economic growth and income inequality. The authors do not consider this aspect in the analysis; however, fiscal policy outcomes variables are included as a workaround for this. Practical implications: These results suggest that authorities favor expenditure-based adjustments as they are less contractionary on the economy. Moreover, they should finance public expenditures through a tax on capital in order to mitigate fiscal adjustment impacts on inequality while promoting growth. Originality/value: The paper is novel in testing the existence of a trade-off between economic growth and income inequality through fiscal adjustments at a sub-national level with an additional focus on urban and rural regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Paris Agreement's nationally driven structure puts the spotlight on financing strategies at the national level. The role of national funding vehicles in mobilizing climate finance, however, has not received extensive attention. This paper remedies this gap by introducing a novel dataset of national climate funds established in developing countries. The database creates an inventory of national financing vehicles and tracks their major attributes, including scope, legal form, and the host, among others. We show that 39 countries have established national climate funds. These funds seek to access and mobilize finance from various sources, domestic and international. Most of these funds have broad mandates to tackle climate change, while a smaller share has a more targeted, sectoral focus. Funding sources vary from taxes to international aid. The funds offer a limited range of financial instruments, primarily awarding grants. The funds also differ in how integrated they are with overarching climate plans and strategies. We also find that most developing countries use existing budget lines to target finance towards climate change objectives. Only five countries track public expenditure on the basis of dedicated budget codes. This paper contributes to the literature by providing an empirical basis to pursue questions regarding the role and effectiveness of national climate funds. For policymakers, the limited range of instruments at the disposal of many of these national climate funds also suggests a need to ensure that the national climate funds have the design features they need to support the implementation of national policy goals. Key policy insights Systematic data on public climate finance are scarce. Most governments do not use climate change codes to track their expenditures related to climate change. Policymakers should adopt practices that will help instil transparency in public expenditure on climate change. Policymakers have to revisit the design features of national climate funds such as legal form and areas of operation as the wider operating context changes. Funds accredited with multilateral climate funds are underutilized by fund contributors. The Green Climate Fund's direct access modality offers one major avenue to foster synergies between national climate funds and multilateral climate funds. Policymakers have the opportunity to harvest lessons from existing funds and calibrate climate policies accordingly, especially as countries contemplate setting revenue-generating carbon prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces dividend taxation and productive government spending in an infinite-horizon general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents and financial market imperfections. We point out that imposing a dividend tax and using the revenue from this tax to finance productive government spending may prevent economic recession and promote economic growth. We also investigate the issue of optimal dividend taxation and the role of dividend taxation on the asset price bubble. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on Fortescue's analysis of the economic impact of various forms of government, based on a comparison between the material well-being which the English enjoy by virtue of their "political kingdom" and the conditions of extreme poverty of the common people in France, an effect of their political-legal system. Fortescue's criteria for judging between different regimes are pragmatic: the main reason for his preference for the temperate monarchy of England is the fact that it gives all inhabitants full enjoyment of the fruits of their labour, and encourages the economic growth of all parts of the realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses how democracy can affect public finance and state capacity investment. We show that the effect of democracy on public policy can take two forms: direct and indirect. The direct effect transpires when increasing democracy leads to an increase in public expenditure which results in increased public goods provision and reduced political rent. The indirect effect emerges when increased democracy leads to a reduction in state capacity investment and, subsequently, to a reduction in public goods provision. Paradoxically, lower political rents deteriorate the incumbent's incentive to invest in state capacity, at the expense of public goods provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Burkina Faso, Burundi and Niger, the policy to remove user fees for primary care was carried out through significant adjustments in public financial management (PFM). The paper analyzes the PFM adjustments by stage of the budget cycle and describes their importance for health financing. The three countries shifted from input-based to program-based allocation for primary care facility compensation, allowed service providers autonomy to access and manage the funds, and established budget performance monitoring frameworks related to outputs. These PFM changes, in turn, enabled key improvements in health financing, namely, more direct funding of primary care facilities from general budget revenue, and payments to those service providers based on outputs and drawn from noncontributory entitlements. The paper draws on these experiences to provide key lessons on the PFM enabling conditions needed to expand health coverage through public financing mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of different types of challenge arguments raised to invalidate resolutions emitted by the Bolivian Tax Administration. All appeals filed before the Tax Challenge Authority of Cochabamba in 2020 were analyzed. The 646 arguments identified were organized into 30 types of mutually exclusive arguments. The frequency and effectiveness of each of the types of arguments were recorded. A significant inclination in favor of the appellants was found in the decisions observed that were caused, mainly, by high rates of efficacy in some types of arguments. In light of the results, it is concluded that the appeal is a convenient challenge for the appellants, especially if they have grounds to raise any a highly effective arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, urban rail funding has become an increasing concern in some western cities. The underlying issues over ridership and funding has largely been driven by trends such as increasing teleworking and new transport modes like ridesharing, which are likely to further exacerbate funding issues in the aftermath of the worldwide health crisis. This paper contributes to the discussion through the examination of funding within urban rail transport, specifically the strengths and weaknesses of mechanisms that can be used to achieve sustainable, stable long-term funding. A unique, very long-term historical dataset of five large metros around the world was collected for this research, with the analysis based on evidence of actual practices, from a relatively rare organisational perspective. Key results include: i) appropriate fare-setting has been critical for long-term financial health, but is vulnerable to inflation effects and political interference; indexing is important but use of consumer prices has led to revenue erosion in real terms, since wage growth is typically higher. ii) How subsidies are generated can have varying impacts on funding stability and sustainability — dedicated taxes and cross-subsidies from road charges are typically better than direct grants as they are secured by legislation; they also reduce political changes and avoid competing claims from other types of government spending (health, education), as compared with grants. iii) Commercial revenue can be a valuable source for future growth, in light of increased resistance to taxation. Real estate-related revenues in particular can be substantial, as in Hong Kong and Tokyo, with historically faster growth than wages, while also capturing any further value increases from rail system improvements. • Strengths and weaknesses analysis of funding sources, using data from 5 large metros • Fare-setting with appropriate index (wages) is crucial for long-term financial health • How subsidies are generated – intrinsic impacts on funds stability and sustainability • Ideally, subsidies secured multi-year with legislation – avoids competing claims • Real estate enables long-term value capture and revenue growth from rail improvements [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contains a critical analysis of the new system of own resources of the European Union, established to address the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. Analysis is mainly from the perspective of the balanced budget rule. Under Council Decision 2020/2053 of 14 December 2020, the Commission is to be, inter alia, empowered to borrow an unprecedentedly huge amount of funds on capital markets on behalf of the EU. This means that, for the first time in history, common budgetary commitments on the part of the EU will be on such a scale that repayment will be spread over many years and will be charged to future generations of EU citizens (known as the 'Next Generation EU' programme). The research aims to compare these innovations with the long-term financial policy of the EU, as a result of the provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the Fiscal Compact. It also elaborates on the limits of societal debt issued by their representatives who form public authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, Spain has witnessed a considerable increase in railway and road transport infrastructure. The driver of this change has been investment from the central government, which has generated speculation regarding the possible distribution of new infrastructure according to partisan political interests. This paper aims to determine whether this political influence impacts the efficiency of the transport infrastructure. This study proposes an empirical model to assess the impact of the central government's investment in roads and railways in the country's 15 mainland autonomous communities. The empirical results reveal that the political factor, as a proxy of public finances, moderates the accessibility process. The empirical model analyses the impact of new infrastructure on structuring and territorial cohesion during 1995–2007, considered the golden decade in Spain. Based on the econometric results, we conclude that state investment in rail, moderated by the consideration of political factors, improves the accessibility of rail transport infrastructure. Finally, this study presents relevant policy implications, suggesting a new line of regulations to increase local transport infrastructure projects' quality regarding "network efficiency." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty is a challenge faced by all countries worldwide. This paper focuses on a factor that has been less well documented: the consumption loss of farmer households caused by the fluctuation of rural public expenditure. Based on large-scale micro household data and climate data, the instrumental variable estimation results show that every 1% fluctuation of rural public expenditure will lead to a 0.113% decrease in farm household consumption. In addition, the fluctuation of rural public expenditure is also a main cause of long-term consumption loss of farmer households. Furthermore, it was found that the impact of rural public expenditure fluctuation on consumption loss is of certain spatial heterogeneity. The worse the spatial environment is, the more serious the consumption loss will be. The policy suggestion of this paper is to ensure a stable scale of rural public expenditure through the central transfer payment, so as to improve the ability of local governments to implement counter cyclical public policies, and transform local finance (industrial investment) into public finance (infrastructure and education) to improve the local space environment. Overall, this study reveals the impact of spatial externality on rural poverty from the perspective of public expenditure fluctuation, and at the same time provides empirical evidence for a better evaluation of the relationship between development and poverty and support for rational regional anti-poverty policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper study regional attractiveness through passive portfolio investment based on duration, immunization and convexity (in case of higher interest rate volatility) of municipal bonds by using data from Standard and Poor's. The massive variety of financial incentives to promote regional investment attractiveness is dependent on governmental strategy. Municipal bonds are the one of the most efficient ways of direct investments in the region, however, it is still a question of a good balance between a certain rate of return and an adequate risk. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the investment opportunities in municipal revenue bonds. Design/methodology/approach: This study developed a model of investing using municipal bonds with the case of their immunization and analyze attractiveness of such investment. The theoretical model assumes a situation where the local government finances its capital projects through municipal revenue bonds. Such situations influence strongly on regional or local competitiveness provided by local government policy. Findings: An analysis of the municipal bond market indicates that both municipal general and revenue bonds had stable and good level of yields to maturity in the past ten years. Their standard deviations were very low and in the past two years almost approached the level of standard deviations of treasury bonds. With the duration of 4–6 years on 5-year investment in municipal revenue bonds and their immunization, it is possible to provide good returns for investor. Research limitations/implications: The limitation of this study concerns theoretical situation where local government will use non-market-based policy to reduce the interest rates and that will influence on rise of municipal bond liquidity premium (price distortion). This situation will make municipality bonds less attractive for investing, especially because of lower liquidity on secondary market. Also, this model is applicable in regions that have developed financial markets. Practical implications: This research suggests governments a sustainable framework to use municipal bonds as a strategy for capital targeting in regions. Social implications: This research is related to professional investors' strategy with projects that have the highest investment potential; this is good way for an adequate allocation of resources (regional competitiveness). Originality/value: This paper analyzes very rare subject involving local government strategy of finance and portfolio investment in municipal bonds. There is a huge gap in the literature on this issue. Also, this study provides the model that can be used as a case for higher local competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reformers often argue that the benefits of ameliorating inequality are worth the cost in higher tax rates and reduced economic efficiency that redistributive social policy supposedly requires. This paper suggests that these arguments are mostly misplaced. Focusing solely on the marginal benefit of government-versus private-sector spending, there is ample reason to conclude that many governmental expenditures directed to reducing inequality are independently justifiable on the basis that they increase efficiency and, over time, more than pay for themselves. Because the efficiency argument directly addresses concerns that might otherwise counsel restraint in redistributive programs, treating the reduction of inequality as a worthwhile tradeoff against efficiency or higher tax rates is mostly counterproductive from a social policy perspective. In fact, the failure to adopt or enhance many spending programs itself represents a form of upward redistribution as measured from a baseline of social wealth maximization. This redistribution is difficult or impossible to justify from either a welfarist perspective or a libertarian one. In making the argument, this paper develops the concept of budget policy endogeneity," or the idea that in judging the affordability of various programs one must take into account the allocative and distributional effects of current spending on the future allocation of resources, since revenue for current projects may be raised in the future. If current spending enhances allocative efficiency, programs that can only be funded with borrowing today create the conditions for their relatively less burdensome repayment tomorrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the economic crisis unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU authorities have launched extraordinary fiscal and monetary measures in support of member states. The impact of these measures is of great significance for Italy, the EU third-largest economy, which as a result of the pandemic has suffered a dramatic decline in GDP, and a further rise in the government debt to GDP ratio. Building on a stock-flow consistent, structural macro-econometric model, this paper shows that the currently planned EU measures are insufficient to boost the recovery of the Italian economy, and to ensure the sustainability of its government debt. The paper also assesses two potential alternative policies. A fiscal consolidation (i.e. austerity) policy would exacerbate the decline in GDP and further deteriorate the government debt to GDP ratio. By contrast, a money-financed fiscal stimulus policy could lead the Italian economy on a path of sustainable growth, with positive outcomes for employment and government finances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiscal incidence analysis is the most widely used methodology to assess the distributional effects of fiscal policies. However, despite 40 years of use and refinement, it still lacks. A focus on the redistributive capacity of fiscal policy among children is increasingly important as policymakers pay growing attention to the disproportionate incidence of poverty among children globally. This paper brings a child-dedicated focus to fiscal incidence analysis by tracking child-relevant benefits, making child wellbeing the unit of analysis, and using multidimensional child poverty metrics. The analysis—Commitment to Equity for Children, or CEQ4C—integrates three analytical frameworks: public finance, fiscal incidence, and multidimensional child poverty. The paper develops a proof of concept for Uganda that includes measurement, diagnostics, and a policy simulation package replicable across diverse contexts. The proof of concept confirms that CEQ4C provides a higher-resolution fiscal incidence analysis for children than the traditional fiscal incidence analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic brought many changes to social behaviours in Europe. One of its major consequences was the temporary closure of borders, which was introduced as a measure to prevent the uncontrolled pandemic spreading and involved internal Schengen borders. This has had a major impact in the way in which cross-border cooperation has been conducted in Europe, including the Czech-Polish borderland, as it dramatically restrained all flows across borders. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of the pandemic on five roles of cross-border cooperation: 1) as a multi-level governance form; 2) as a regional development tool; 3) as a para-diplomacy form; 4) as a post-conflict reconciliation tool; and 5) as Europe-building. We argue that the impacts of the pandemic complicated regional development and the Europe-building role of cross-border cooperation in the Czech-Polish borderland. The article envisages re-bordering processes also in the Czech-Polish borderland, but with important exceptions in the regions with a high level of cross-border integration, mainly in the Euroregion Těšínské Slezsko/Śląsk Cieszyński. The paper also calls for the elaboration of the guidelines for possible repeated (Schengen) border closures and proposes modifications of the INTERREG microprojects schemes, to keep them attractive also in times of expected cuts in public finances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advanced (modern) health systems are based on the principles of solidarity, the right to choose and efficiency in spending the resources of the system. They have both social and economic characteristics. The role of public health resources in all developed countries is leading. The present paper examines the status and problems of public finance management. It is based on research realized in 2020. The research was conducted among health managers, university professors of health care management, health experts of Ministry of Health, National Health Insurance Fund, executive directors and managers of hospitals and laboratories, and other experts in the healthcare system. The authors investigate theirs positions about the changes in healthcare financing in Bulgaria. The aim of the study is to identify the main problems in public finance management in healthcare. The study shows that the Ministry of Health have to manage and finance some priority health activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the fiscal incentives and public financing destined to the promotion of Workers' Cooperatives in Mexico, as well as the participation of cooperatives in activities that may represent transgressions to the fiscal and labor laws of our country. The results show that the economic crisis of the 1980s forced a change in the economic model and cooperatives were relegated from public policies. The relationship with the State fractured again in 2013 when cooperative companies were accused of fraudulent operations to avoid paying federal taxes, as a consequence, special taxation regimes were eliminated and public financing was reduced. However, the information published by the country's administrative authorities does not provide evidence to ensure that in the last 11 years the cooperative organizations have constituted a risk factor for federal public finances and the labor stability of workers. This research applies a mixed method, which means the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods and techniques. In the first case, the hypothetical-deductive method is used, and in the second, grounded theory and hermeneutic triangulation. The data come from the tax agency's web page and direct consultation with the institute responsible for providing public information to citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance represents a positive shift in the global economy's transition to sustainability through the financing of public and private green investments and public policies that support green initiatives. Internalizing environmental externalities and lowering risk perceptions are two of green finance's major goals in order to promote investments that have a positive impact on the environment. Banks, institutional investors, and international financial institutions, as well as central banks and financial regulators, are some of the main players advancing the growth of green finance. To assist the greening of the financial system, some of these entities employ policy and regulatory measures for various asset classes, such as priority lending requirements, below-market-rate finance through interest-rate subsidies, or preferential central bank refinancing possibilities. By issuing green bonds, green equity, and green debentures, green finance has attracted a lot of interest in the current financial market. It fosters a culture of conservation and safeguards the natural resources for the benefit of coming generations. The objective of the paper is toanalyze the profile of the respondents and analyze their opinion, progress and challenges of green finance in Madurai district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]