Suchergebnisse

The international evidence shows that the spending of sub-national governments depends on unconditional transfers from the central government. This evidence makes relevant the following question: What is the optimal design of inter-governmental transfers? In this article we provide an answer to this question. The main contribution of this article is the characterization of optimal unconditional intergovernmental transfers. We also contribute to the literature, by providing empirically verifiable hypotheses on how the federal transfers from the central government depend on the interregional inequality of income, the distribution and magnitude of interregional spillovers of sub-national expenditures, and the deadweight labor costs associated with taxation and intergovernmental transfers. ; La evidencia internacional muestra que el gasto de los gobiernos subnacionales depende de las transferencias condicionadas del gobierno central. En este contexto es relevante preguntarse: ¿cuál debiese ser el diseño óptimo de las transferencias inter-gubernamentales? En este artículo proporcionamos una respuesta a esta pregunta. La principal contribución de este artículo es la caracterización de fórmulas de transferencias intergubernamentales óptimas condicionadas. Además, en este artículo se contribuye con una serie de hipótesis que pueden ser comprobables empíricamente sobre la dependencia de las transferencias intergubernamentales condicionadas de la inequidad interregional del ingreso, la distribución y magnitud de externalidades interregionales del gasto público subnacional, y el impacto de los costos de ineficiencia relacionados con los impuestos y transferencias en la oferta laboral. Comparative analysis of optimal conditional transfers in a fiscally centralized federation Abstract The international evidence shows that the spending of sub-national governments depends on unconditional transfers from the central government. This evidence makes relevant the following question: What is the optimal design of inter-governmental transfers? In this article we provide an answer to this question. The main contribution of this article is the characterization of optimal unconditional intergovernmental transfers. We also contribute to the literature, by providing empirically verifiable hypotheses on how the federal transfers from the central government depend on the interregional inequality of income, the distribution and magnitude of interregional spillovers of sub-national expenditures, and the deadweight labor costs associated with taxation and intergovernmental transfers. Keywords: Fiscal federalism, Intergovernmental transfers, Tradeoff between efficiency and equity.