Blockchain Papers

Stéphanie Serve

No abstract is available for this record.

Attila György, Adina Cristina György

In the last years we witnessed the continuous growth of local public resources, while public authorities from territorial-administrative units diversified their structures in order to achieve all the tasks that have been transferred. As a result, the position of subordinated public institutions was strengthened by increasing their number and volume of resources developed by them. In this paper we propose to highlight the features of the financial management of public funds by public institutions of local subordination in the context of decentralization in Romania.

Tatiana Moșteanu, Carmen Maria Lăcătuş, Mirela Anca Postole

This paper work aims to identify the issues of Romanian local public decentralization, recommending measures to streamline the public finance circuit. The reorganization of the public government in three levels, the growth of the financial independence of local authorities and public administration’s decisions’ transparency next to a better information of citizens, coupled with their empowerment and involvement in public affairs, all these represents key points for the discharge of decentralization of public finances: to increase social welfare.

Nicolae Balalia, Constantin Afanase

The research theme is important for the local economy and financial literature on local public finance. It is known that the tax base of the territories is quite uneven and providing quality public services is impossible based on their own sources. The support for less developed local public administration from the financial point of view requires fiscal decentralization and involves financial equalization procedures or other similar measures aimed at eliminating the effect of unequal distribution for potential funding sources. Financial equalization is a group of financial actions made in order to overcome economic and fiscal disparities between territories. The purpose of financial equalization is the additional funding of less developed territories in order to reduce regional disparities. Key words: financial equalization, fiscal decentralization, inter-budgetary

Pierre‐Michel Menger

Cultural policy in Europe is deeply rooted in the Welfare State doctrine that has been prevailing during the last half century. Its implementation has gone along with the invention and rise of educational policy, social policy and health policy. This paper sketches its evolution as a four phase move towards what has been emerging as the central dual content of the current public cultural policy: preserving and promoting heritage, and bringing the creative industries at the core of the so-called knowledge society. The general evolutionary trend shows four distinct phases: 1) the creation of a systematic cultural supply policy based on a limited definition of culture suitable for public financing and based on a vertical concept of democratization by conversion; 2) the gradual decentralization of public action, which leads to an increasing disparity in its aims and functions, and which challenges the initial universalist, top-down egalitarian model; 3) a revision of the legitimate scope of public action, which declares symbolically obsolete the founding hierarchy of cultural politics, that which would oppose high culture, protected from market forces and entertainment culture and governed by the laws of the industrial economy; 4) an increasing tendency to justify cultural policy on the basis of its contribution to economic growth and to the balance of national social diversity, which legitimises the regulatory power of public action as well encouraging the expansion of the creative industries and the demands for the evaluation of procedures and results. The last section of this paper moves away from the state centered perspective and focuses on the city as the incubator of cultural generativity, in order to suggest how a city-centered approach to cultural development challenges the state-centered doctrine of cultural policy.

Dan Ţogoe

Without a real change, the Romanian education system and especially the preuniversity system will not be able to overcome its instability and provisional character. The reforms that started in 2000 must continue. The success of the decentralization of the pre-university system, as a basic component of the reform, greatly depends on the manner in which the financing of preuniversity education must be carried out in accordance with the number of pupils, and the funds must be assigned to place the pupil in a flexible and facile environment.

Eugen Dogariu

Local authority financing is currently at the heart of the political debate. All the states are faced with the challenge of reconciling the need to control and reduce public spending with greater financial autonomy in local government; they are accordingly seeking ways of achieving an equitable distribution of financial resources among the different levels of government in a context of budgetary cutbacks at every level of public administration. If strengthening democracy means strengthening local selfgovernment, this in turn means establishing systems of financing for local authorities which are at once efficient, fair and consistent with the state's economic imperatives. In other words, the principle of subsidiary, decentralization and local finances are all interdependent.In Romania this process started in 1990 and it is on the move even today. This paper is trying to find, by using economic instruments, what is the degree in which we succeed to create a real local financial selfgovernment.

Wiktor Owsiak, Olha Prokopiv

This paper presents the significance of the issues related to the activity of territorial self-government for the social and economic development of Ukraine. The efficient operation of self-government in any country is unfeasible without financial resources. Polish experience in the development of territorial self-government is particularly valuable in relation to the reform of Ukraine’s self-government. The paper outlines the differences in the structure and operation of territorial self-government in both countries. The paper is concluded with numerous observations on the direction of selected reforms of Ukrainian self-government. It shows the weaknesses of local self-government in Ukraine, which result from the lack of decentralization of finance and the small amount of state-collected taxes. The conclusions end with the observation that a consistent development of the Ukrainian state is required for Poland to develop well.

Alina Profiroiu, Tudorel Andrei, Marian Nica, Elena Daniela ŞTEFĂNESCU

The reform process of the state and implicitly of the public administration was a priority for the past governments of Romania. During 2004- 2009, within the reform process, the main actors involved in the coordination, implementation and monitoring of reform measures were: the Prime Minister, the Superior Council for Public Administration Reform, Public Policy Coordination and Structural Adjustment, the Ministry of Public Finance, the General Secretariat of Government, Ministry of Administration and Interior (renamed for a short time Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform), the Central Unit for Public Administration Reform, National Institute of Administration, the National Agency of Civil Servants, and the National Modernizers Network. For evaluation of aspects related to the reform process it was designed a selective research within the members of the National Modernizers Network, for assessing their perception of the public administration reform undertaken by the institutions presented above. Evaluating their opinion can be an important point in the revitalization of the area of the administration reform process. Also, the research conducted aimed at assessing the degree of modernizers’ involvement in activities related to important aspects of the reform process: strategic planning, formulating and evaluating public policies, financial management, human resources management, decentralization, introduction of new information and communication technologies and administrative simplification.

Desislava Stoilova

This study is intended to examine the influence of the current worldwide financial and economic crisis on financial decentralization process in Bulgaria and identify the answers of the central and lo-cal governments to the critical situation in the context of specific conditions of the national economy and the stage of financial decentralization reform. Analysis is focused on dynamics of the main mac-roeconomic indicators, based on fact figures for the period 1990–2009 and forecast for the period 2010-2011, and its impact on the public finance. The most important actions, taken by the national government to consolidate the crisis are described and evaluated on the base of their effects on the lo-cal finance. A comparison is made between the loss of Bulgarian economy in the beginning of transition (1991-1993), during the financial crisis in 1996-1997, caused by credit crunch and series of bank bankruptcies, and the current financial and economic crisis. Finally, some conclusions and pol-icy recommendations are outlined, intended to improve crisis management in Bulgaria both on the national and local level.

Kadeřábková Jaroslava, Marek Jetmar

Decentralization of decision-making on the availability of essential public goods for regional and local level raises questions regardless of ability to ensure or guarantee the supply by the small municipalities. It affects the delicate problem of fiscal decentralization and own limits of decentralization process. In this paper, we deal with problems concerning primarily the development of small municipalities as independent public corporations, their ability to play the self-government role and to ensure the availability of essential public goods and services. The main criteria for defining small rural communities are the population and the status of municipality in the settlement structure, which is a predetermined by range of services provided at territory of municipality (market services, public services) to its citizens and residents of surrounding villages. We deal with problems of financing small communities, their participation in the distribution of revenue from shared taxes, the availability of other resources. We monitor the factors that enter into models of reallocation of public resources. We base their findings mot only on information from literature, but also from terrain research, which not only confirmed some previously published facts, but allowed to reveal the factors that significantly affect the financial situation of small municipalities. This led to the determination of parameters, the key mechanism for setting the allocation of public resources. On the basis of the investigation, we analyze the parameters, the key mechanism for setting the allocation of public resources. In conclusion, the authors summarize the main issues and articulate the principles that should be respected in the formulation and adjustment of the budget determination.

Cătană Emilia Lucia, Cătană Marius Cristian

Improving quality and efficiency in providing public services by accelerating the decentralization process represents one of the fundamental premises of a democratic, rule of law state that is oriented towards achieving performance in public services for its citizens. Bringing public decision-making closer to the citizen, improving quality in providing public services to citizens, as well as reducing their costs, are but a small part of the advantages brought about by public services decentralization, with the major role in decentralization being played by both education institutions, and local public authorities. In this context, the study focuses firstly on approaching empirically and epistemologically the decentralization of Romanian public education system, which presupposes transfer of authority, responsibility and resources concerning decision-making, and of general and financial management towards education institutions and local community. What is also revealed in this study is the premises and stages of Romanian public education decentralization, the advantages but also disadvantages and limitations of decentralization, as well as the education public service prospects from the perspective of decentralization. Last, but not least the study approaches the subject from the viewpoint of related public policies and legislation; the research puts emphasis on the fact that in accordance with the present Romanian legislative framework, the entire patrimony of public schools- land and premises- is public property and belongs to communes, cities and municipalities, and it is managed by the respective local public authorities. Furthermore, it is local budges that finance schools, and school patrimony and funds are currently being handled by local councils. Insufficiency of financial resources on the part of local communities may represent a serious drawback in the way of achieving efficient and effective decentralization in Romania, thus indicating a need to identify feasible solutions for finding the resources necessary for the conclusion of this process.

Snezana Hristova

This paper examines the financial crisis in light of the local economic development and sets out some policy recommendations. Local economic development is a process in which the local authorities cooperate with the public sector, business community, and NGOs, in order to create more appropriate environment for economic development and for unemployment decreasing. The last months saw the world economy facing to the worst financial crisis in history, causing unprecedented drop in demand and sales and record‐breaking unemployment levels worldwide. No country can escape certain economic and social consequences from the global financial crisis. The main research question is the following: How does the gobal crisis affect local governments? The local governements are facing several problems such as: higher unemployment and social needs at the community level, pressure for increased spending, difficulties of investment financing, need of deferring maintenance. Then, the paper sets some policy recommendations adressed to the following aspect‐ what should and can local governments do? The crisis offers some chances for change in the context of strengthening the role of local governments.The central government will rely on local governments to bring policies rapidly to bear on the economy. This could and should intensify the intergovernmentaldialogue and it could also lead to strengthening fiscal autonomy of municipalities. Improving the competitiveness at the local level and developing a strong local economy can help the country cope with the effects of the global economic slowdown. Local government units should improve their competitiveness to attract more investments and to develop their local economy. Given that the responsibility of assisting the national government in mitigating the impact of the crisis through stimulation of the local economy are given to local governments, this paper aims to discuss issues related to enhancing local economic development and fiscal decentralization as a means of improving overall service delivery in the country, in the context of global economic and financial crisis. Local governments may also be succesful in the promoting productivity locally in order to enhance the country’s competitiveness in anticipation of a greater role in global trade during the recovery in the next few years. The special focus of this paper has been given to the case of local economic development in the Republic of Macedonia.

Péter Halmai, Viktória Vásáry, Halmai, Peter, Vasary, Viktoria

Is the Common Agricultural Policy unsustainable? Is agricultural spending a major distorting factor in the EU economy and an obstacle to the implementation of the Lisbon agenda? To answer these complex questions, detailed analysis is required along the following lines of thought: 1. Exploration of factors justifying Community level intervention. – Is the ’theory of decentralization’ applicable to budgetary issues and the common agricultural policy? Our hypothesis suggests that it is. 2. Assessing CAP as it currently exists, including its ability to generate public goods at the level of the Community (multifunctional elements which are indeed cross-border externalities) and its ability to create added value at the level of the Community. 3. Making an attempt to redefine the Community’s agricultural policy by identifying goals which can be achieved more effectively at the supranational level rather than by involving secondary levels of decision making. – Making an attempt to outline a Common Rural Policy, a new policy intended to promote the creation of public goods required by the society by means of targeted and decoupled economic policy measures. The concept of the new policy – a new policy requiring both national and Community funding – is in line with the requirements of sustainable development, i.e. sustainable agricultural activities such as sustainable land use, food and feed production, biofuels, forestry and fishing. Additionally, the new policy we outlined may also be an effective approach to meeting challenges arising from globalisation, trade liberalization, climate change and structural reform issues. ----------------------------------------- Fenntarthatatlan a Közös Agrárpolitika? Torzítják a mezőgazdasági kiadások az EU gazdaságá¬nak fejlődését, gátolják a Lisszaboni stratégia végrehajtását? Ezekre a bonyolult kérdésekre a követ¬kező pontok részletes elemzésével adhatjuk meg a választ: 1. A közösségi szintű beavatkozást igazoló tényezők feltárása, rendszerezése. – Alkalmazható a „decentralizációs elmélet” a költségvetési kérdések, illetve a közös agrárpolitika vonatkozásában? Hipotézisünk szerint: igen. 2. A KAP értékelése – figyelembe véve az EU-szintű közjavak (a multifunkcionális elemek va-lóban határokon átnyúló externalitások) és EU-szintű hozzáadott érték előállítására vonatkozó képességet. 3. Kísérlet az EU agrárpolitikájának átalakítására annak segítségével, hogy felmérjük, mely cél-kitűzések valósíthatóak meg eredményesebben szupranacionális szinten, és nem pedig másodla¬gos döntési szintek bevonásával. – Kísérlet a Közös Vidékpolitika körvonalazására, amely új poli¬tika célzott és szétválasztott szakpolitikai intézkedések segítségével járul hozzá a társadalom által megkívánt közjavak előállításához. Az új politika koncepciója – annak az új politikának a koncepciója, amely mind nemzeti mind Kö¬zösségi szintű finanszírozást is igényel – összhangban van a fenntartható fejlődés – azaz a fenntart¬ható mezőgazdasági tevékenységek: fenntartható földhasználat, élelmiszer- és takarmány-előál¬lítás, bioüzemanyag, erdészet és halászat – követelményeivel. Továbbá az általunk felvázolt új po¬litika megfelelően kezelheti a globalizációval, kereskedelem-liberalizációval, klímaváltozással és strukturális reformmal kapcsolatos kihívásokat.

Desislava Stoilova

The process of gradual administrative and political decentralization in Bulgaria started in 1991 with the adoption of the Local Self-Government and Local Administration Act, but the real financial decentralization process started in the beginning of 2003 with the adoption of a comparatively clear expenditure assignment and introduction of a transparent and predictable intergovernmental transfer system. Basically, a key issue in the design of fiscal federalism is the financing of subnational governments. Because of the advantages of taxation at the central level and spending at the decentralized level during the transition period Bulgaria has often ended up with vertical and horizontal fiscal imbalances. In most of the fiscal years the decentralization of expenditures was not accompanied by equivalent revenue-raising responsibilities and the taxable base was unevenly distributed within the country territory. The purpose of this paper is to study and critically analyze the financial decentralization reform in Bulgaria, outlining the key achievements and basic weaknesses of the local taxation and the intergovernmental fiscal relations. Key words: financial decentralization, local finance, intergovernmental fiscal relations, local

Tatiana Moșteanu, Carmen Maria Lăcătuş

The work paper highlights the evolution of the public financial decentralization in Romania, based on analysis of legislative changes that occurred after 1991.These changes have had an important impact on local budgets and on local government responsibilities. In the context of increasing local financial independence, local authorities had to demonstrate their ability to take on the tasks of local interest from central government powers. The effect is prompt and timely response to citizen needs.

Judit Kálmán

Observation of the first and second generation of literature on fiscal decentralization together with further branches of political economy, e.g. specifically on the political economy of intergovernmental grants and the widening literature on political business cycles leads to a puzzle: decentralization is a continuing policy trend however in reality there are downsides, institutional, political and other factors that do interfere with decision-making and can increase the chances for inefficient policy outcomes. Infrastructure investment finances at all levels of government are especially prone to election cycles and corruption. Driven from the above context the basic research question guiding my work is: whether local infrastructure policies in Hungary are really designed according to efficiency considerations? What politico-economic factors might affect central and local governments’ allocations on infrastructure investment? To complete this goal, a closer look at municipal capital investment financing in Hungary takes place. Related to the main research question several themes emerge and hypotheses are checked on the effects of the revenue base, local need and socioeconomic indicators on local investment strategies and financing constructions or grant allocations. Does grant financing mean a less careful financial planning? What is the importance of lobbying through different channels? I also search for - and in fact do find evidence of electoral cycle effects and partisan considerations (effect of similarities in political color of central and local governments) in intergovernmental grant distribution and in municipal investment activities. These issues to be researched call for a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. Some of my hypothesis are tested on limited data from a 2004 survey of city mayors in Hungary. Hypotheses on cycles, determinants of investment outlays of local governments and grant recipiency are tested with linear and Probit panel regressions respectively on a panel dataset comprehensive for all Hungarian local government budgets from 1993-2003, a period bridging three election cycles, linked with some demographic,socioeconomic data and local election data. Findings can add to the discussion on reforming local government finance system overall, on the agenda in Hungary for quite a while, but perhaps also to the new literature on the political economy of failures, delays in socially beneficial reforms. What this dissertation certainly does contribute to is the fairly small pool of international empirical evidences available on political budget cycles, especially at the sub-national level and the emerging literature on the political economy of intergovernmental grants providing the case of one transition country that irrespective of the fact of by now being an EU member sometimes shows certain similarities to the developing ones.

Viktória Vásáry, Andrea Elekes, Péter Halmai, Vasary, Viktoria · 6 authors

Can we agree fully with the statement, that “agricultural spending is a major distorting factor in the EU economy and a distinct obstacle to the Lisbon agenda’s implementation”? (Gros, 2008) Is it without question that Europe’s agriculture is in position to become sustainable and competitive without certain kind of common policy with no Community financing? Is it unambiguous in every respect, that the challenges facing the sector – globalization, trade liberalization, climate change, water management, Lisbon process, enlargement, changing preferences – could be answered at national level utilizing exclusively national financial sources? The answers to these questions are complex. So the purpose of the paper is multiple: - Exploration of factors justifying community level intervention. – Could be applied the bottom line of the “decentralization theorem” to budgetary questions and needs of the agricultural policy? According to our hypothesis the answer is considered yes. - Assessing present CAP - taking into account its ability to provide EU wide public goods (multifunctional elements serve in deed significant cross-border externalities) and to create EU value added. - Making an attempt to redefine EU’s agricultural policy through exploring objectives having a greater impact by being implemented at the supranational level and not at other secondary decision levels. – Making an attempt to outline a Common Rural Policy, a policy promoting the provision of public goods required by the society by means of targeted and decoupled economic policy measures. In order to attain the objectives of the paper we apply the theory of fiscal federalism, make analysis on EU public finances in a broader context.

Sonia Esteban Laleona, Pablo de Frutos Madrazo, María José Prieto Jano

Traditionally, the academic debates about the benefits that the existence of multilevel government structures provide have been directly related to the gains in efficiency that derive from the processes of decentralization of the Public Sector. However, as of the last decades, the Public Finance has broadened its analysis towards other questions, one of them being if the fiscal decentralization influences positively in the economic growth of a country. The objective of this document is to provide a "reading guide" for this new line of investigation on the influence of fiscal decentralization on regional economic growth.

Britta Klagge, Ron Martin

In recent years, stimulated by globalization, technological innovation and intensifying international competition, there has been a growing trend towards the increasing institutional and geographical concentration of financial systems and markets. At the same time, there has been mounting academic and policy interest in the financing problems faced by new and small firms, which are widely considered to suffer from a ‘funding gap’. These twin developments provide the motivation for this paper, which seeks to throw some theoretical and empirical light on the question of whether the spatial organization of the financial system impacts on the flows of capital to small firms across regions. Is it the case that a heavily spatially-centralized financial system, like that in the UK, militates against the ready access to capital by new and small firms in peripheral regions, while a more decentralized financial system, like that in Germany, results in a more even regional distribution? The paper first discusses this question theoretically in the context of the regional finance literature. It then compares capital market structures and the regional distribution of equity for SMEs in the UK and Germany. This comparison lends some support to the view that capital markets do not function in a space-neutral way, and that a highly centralized system like that in the UK may well introduce spatial bias in the flows of capital to SMEs. It also shows, though, as the case of Germany illustrates, that the actual impact of the geographical organization of capital markets depends on, and is mitigated by, other institutional and regulatory conditions. Our analysis suggests while a geographically decentralized financial system with sizable and well-embedded regional/local clusters of institutions, networks, agents, and markets could be advantageous in various ways, regional/local capital markets also face a number of major challenges and problems. The paper indicates the need for more research in this somewhat neglected area.

Mário Fortuna, José António Cabral Vieira, Margarida Mendes

One objective frequently found in models of decentralized financing is that of equalization. The concern is that poorer jurisdictions receive enough resources for basic services and for development promotion, thus eliminating horizontal and vertical imbalances. In Portugal, decentralization has occurred at two levels: the local, for the whole country and the regional for the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira. Decentralization to local governments has undergone several changes in recent decades. The current paper focuses on testing for the presence of an equalization effect in the models adopted to finance municipalities in Portugal, since the nineteen nineties. Using the theoretical background that maintains that for the presence of an equalizing effect it is necessary that, on a per capita basis, poorer regions or localities receive relatively more transfers than the richer jurisdictions, a test is made using a data set that includes all municipalities of Portugal. The situation of the two autonomous regions is controlled with dummy variables. The hypothesis that the models used have an equalizing effect is tested through the sign of the coefficient of the regression of per capita transfers on per capita own resources. In the presence of an equalizing effect the sign will be significant and negative. It is confirmed that, for the period under analysis, the municipalities with lower per capita own revenues are those that receive more transfers per capita. There is, therefore, an equalizing effect in the current transfer system to municipalities. Using pooled data, one can also conclude that the equalization effect has become stronger with the 1998 and 2002 reviews of the system, when compared to the system in effect in 1991.

Marijana Sumpor

If the political climate is stable, local elections in Croatia take place every four years. Budgets are planned for three years, while strategic development programmes cover periods of five to ten years. Technically, the political, financial and developmental programming cycles can be matched, and implementation of the programmes ensured. However, political programmes are generally vague, budgets are every so often fictive and revised mid year and development programmes grow into visionary shopping lists. Reality shows that programmes and plans are elaborated, presented in public and then neatly put into drawers. In the aftermath, local politicians are concerned mainly about the financing flows and this is what they are usually fighting for at council meetings and in various ministries. Regularly, local administration proceeds according to the wishes of the political decision makers, without referring to any program in the end. Consequently, political accountability is lacking, fiscal management is not transparent and development is lagging behind. The main aim of this paper is to show how strategic development programmes, budgetary plans and political programmes can be linked in the Croatian socio-economic and institutional environment. Also, in line with the initiated process of decentralization in Croatia, local governments have to improve their fiscal management in order to be able to take over new functions and responsibilities. Since by now a number of local development programmes exist in Croatia, where a participatory and strategic development planning approach was applied, an analysis of the political programmes, local budgets and development programmes can be done. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that if local governments better understood the interdependencies between these three segments, they could create reference points for their actions visible in their programmes and budgets. In this way a platform could be created to enhance the political accountability, improve fiscal capacity and fulfil developmental goals in line with real needs and potentials of the local population.

Viktor Trasberg

The Baltic countries’ local governments have been functioned during the last decade in a permanently changing environment. Like other transition countries, they inherited from the past extremely centralized administrative system. Along with radical reforms, administrative system was decentralized and various functions were devolved from central to lower levels of government. Despite that, municipalities are still fiscally strongly dependent from central authorities. Often their fiscal capacity is not adequate to act in accordance with functions stipulated by laws. Many local governments’ revenues from taxes and user-charges are insufficient to finance efficiently their expenditures. Disparities in municipalities’ fiscal situation are correlated with unbalanced regional growth, social degradation in the low-income regions and growing differentiation by municipalities’ residents on access to education and healthcare. Membership of the European Union brings new tasks and responsibilities for the Baltic local governments. Municipalities should increase their economic sustainability and enhance administrative capacity to explore EU accession funds and implement EU policies. Considering the above-mentioned problems, the paper focuses on current fiscal situation of local governments in the Baltic countries. The main interest is to analyze local municipalities’ revenue level and structure, expenditure composition and fiscal autonomy conditions

Torben Dall Schmidt

National governments often choose to delegate tasks and burdens to lower levels in a comprehensive system of administration. Local and regional governance thereby becomes an important factor in policy implementation. This paper focuses on the incentive problem that follows from such a delegation of competences to collect taxes and do lending at the local level in a multi-level geo-administrative system. The paper uses the Danish administrative system to illustrate the actual outcomes from such incentive problems. A two-step estimation procedure will be used to derive results on the importance of incentive problems in multi-level geo-administrative systems. Setting up elaborate administrative systems will introduce agency problems that lead to inefficiencies in both local and national governance.