Local Fiscal Equalization in Estonia: Is a Reform Necessary?

Friedrich, Péter; Nam, Chang Woon; Reiljan, Janno

doi:10.1111/j.1467-940x.2010.00173.x

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Source: Friedrich et al (2009); Kriz (2009). Even during the boom years, municipalities were mostly running modest deficits.…”

Section: Box 3 Equalisation Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, since 2005 their debt has almost doubled, although in international comparison, it is still very small in terms of GDP, at 4% while in both Finland and Sweden the figure stands around 6% of GDP, close to the average for EU16. Some have argued that the numerous responsibilities passed onto the local level have not been matched by adequate resources (Friedrich et al;Jauhiainen, 2008). A recent Constitutional court ruling on the need to better specify earmarked allocations for fulfilling the state delegated tasks from other transfers highlights the ongoing tensions between the central government financing and local municipalities' budgets.…”

Section: Box 3 Equalisation Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Public Sector Spending Efficiency in Estonia

Šmídová

2011

OECD Economics Department Working Papers

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The Estonian fiscal position is much better than in many OECD countries, the country stands out for having a rather lean government sector and the authorities are striving for efficient use of existing resources. Both healthcare and local government were particularly hit the by the decrease of resources as a result of the unprecedented GDP fall during the downturn. As a return to high revenue buoyancy will not be immediate, there are challenges for delivering the same with less money but it is also an opportunity to reconsider provision of public services. The healthcare sector is state dominated and offers some scope for efficiency improvements. On the supply side, further streamlining of the existing hospital network, emphasising primary care, and keeping an eye on the standard of quality of care, would be helpful. A number of market signals are already in place on the demand side, such as fees and drug co-payments. Yet these raise issues of accessibility of healthcare, in particular for financially distressed households. A cap on out-of-pocket spending together with active promotion of least expensive drugs use would help to address this issue. Local government seems rather extensive and fragmented for such a small country. Exploiting economies of scale, either by merging or requiring deeper cooperation , should bring gains in terms of public service efficiency. Offering greater scope for tax raising at the local level can incentivise the municipalities to adopt more growth-oriented economic policies. This working Paper relates to the 2010 Economic Survey of Estonia (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/estonia).

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“…Source: Friedrich et al (2009); Kriz (2009). Even during the boom years, municipalities were mostly running modest deficits.…”

Section: Box 3 Equalisation Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Box 3 Equalisation Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Sector Spending Efficiency in Estonia

Šmídová

2011

OECD Economics Department Working Papers

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“…The phenomenon of financial autonomy of municipalities could, from the perspective of scientific literature, be referred to as a paradigm still requiring considerable expertise to be built and scientific knowledge to be acquired. According to foreign (Friedrich et al, 2003(Friedrich et al, , 2010Oulasvirta, Turala, 2005; Mosteanu, Lãcãtu, 2008; Beer-Toth, 2009; Cigu, 2013; Scutariu, Scutariu, 2015;Psycharis et al, 2016;Kopanska, 2017 and others) and Lithuanian (Astrauskas, 2002(Astrauskas, , 2007Astrauskas, Striškaitė 2003;Bivainis, Butkevičius, 2003;Davulis, 2004Davulis, , 2007Raipa, Backūnaitė, 2004;Civinskas, Tolvaišis, 2006;Mačiulytė, Ragauskas, 2007;Davulis et al, 2013;Slavinskaitė, 2017 and others) authors, financial autonomy of municipalities provides greater manoeuvrability to the country's financial system and allows for addressing the economic and social issues of the authorities on the subnational level. With more autonomy and authority in formation of local budgets and in decision-making in relation to management of financial resources, municipalities can implement the regional and municipal economic and social development plans properly.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of Problems of Financial Autonomy in Lithuanian Rural Municipalities

Skauronė

Montvydaitė²

2020

Rural Development 2019

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The scientific problem addressed by the article is the lack of the ways for identification and solution of the issues of financial autonomy in rural municipalities. The aim of the article is to identify the problem areas of financial autonomy in Lithuanian rural municipalities. The problem areas of financial autonomy in rural municipalities have been identified under the methods of scientific literature analysis, document analysis, and statistical data analysis, and comparative analysis. The problematics of definition of the phenomenon of financial autonomy of rural municipalities has been noticed; problem areas of expenditure, revenue, financial transfers and borrowing in the municipalities have been identified. The empirical study of the data on 50 Lithuanian rural municipalities reflecting their respective financial autonomy in the period 2014-2018 (municipality revenue structure, revenue per capita, the dynamics of the share of the personal income tax (PIT)) revealed that the major share of the revenues of rural municipalities is collected by means of the PIT. There are four donor municipalities in Lithuania -Vilnius city, Kaunas city, Klaipėda city and Neringa municipalitieswith their PITs used to support rural municipalities. The central authorities of Lithuania apply inter-budgetary reallocation of funds in order to introduce the financial equalization measures to adjust for the unequal allocation of potential financial resources between the municipalities with the ultimate objective of eliminating the territorial, social and economic disparities between the municipalities. However, the revenue and expenditure remain unequalized between the municipalities.

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Tax Competition and Income Sorting: Evidence from the Zurich Metropolitan Area

2009

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. In this paper, we provide empirical evidence for the influence of income taxes on the choice of residence of taxpayers at the local level. The fact that Swiss communities can individually set tax multipliers thereby shifting the progressive tax scheme which is fixed at the cantonal (state) level enables us to study the effect of differences in income taxation on individuals' choice of location within an economically and culturally homogeneous region. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may

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Local Fiscal Equalization in Estonia: Is a Reform Necessary?

Cited by 5 publications

References 6 publications

Public Sector Spending Efficiency in Estonia

Public Sector Spending Efficiency in Estonia

Identification of Problems of Financial Autonomy in Lithuanian Rural Municipalities

Tax Competition and Income Sorting: Evidence from the Zurich Metropolitan Area

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