Suchergebnisse

In this paper we shall be analyzing gradual poverty reducing reforms for monetary transfers in Belarus. Some evidence is offered in support of the claim that the effectiveness of the existing 'categorical' system of transfers might be improved by redirecting resources to specific groups of households. Using a decomposition of households into socio‐economic groups, feasible marginal reforms are suggested, and their robustness is checked by both experimenting with different poverty lines and introducing a simplified form of labour supply responsiveness. Based on these findings, a microsimulation of a hypothetical transfer change among different groups of households is run. According to this microsimulation, all aggregate poverty indicators could be reduced.

The aim of this article is to compare the economic well-being associated to the distribution of earnings in Italy. To this purpose, dominance techniques are extensively used to minimize the disagreement about the set of social values introduced into the analysis. We will show that even in a simple economic framework, dominance conditions do not allow extensive ranking. Indeed, unanimous welfare prescriptions are hardly achieved at any dimension, which means that more specific indicators are needed to allow a rank on the basis of specific value judgments. Using the Analysis of Gini (ANOGI), we are able to show that differences among regional distributions accentuate over time, confirming the persistence of the Italian dualism among geographical areas.

This paper investigates the relationship between fiscal federalism and the sizes of local governments. While many empirical studies emphasized that grants encourage the growth of local public spending and local taxes constrain it, they are more silent regarding the effects of different types of tax autonomy. The paper addresses this issue by arguing that tax decentralization as organized on tax bases used only by local governments (tax-separation), rather than on tax-base sharing, would restrain local public expenditures. Using an unbalanced panel of OECD countries, the key finding is that only property taxes-mostly based on a "tax-separation" scheme-seem to favor smaller local governments. Thus, while tax decentralization is a necessary condition for limiting the growth of local governments, it does not appear sufficient, as tax-separation schemes among government levels would in fact be required. Adapted from the source document.