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Intergovernmental Transfers and Fiscal Behavior: Insurance versus Aggregate Discipline

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  • Mariano Tommasi

    () (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres & Center of Studies for Institutional Development)

  • Pablo Sanguinetti

    (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella)

Abstract

This paper evaluates the trade-off between the advantages of risk sharing and the perils of common pool problems in federal fiscal arrangements. Under the assumption of asymmetric information we evaluate two alternative regimes of intergovernmental transfers. In one regime, the central government pre-commits to a certain level of transfers that compensate vertical fiscal imbalances and provide some limited ex-ante insurance In the other regime, it accommodates ex-post the fiscal needs of the different provinces In this second case, full-insurance results, but the economy is subject to a tragedy of the fiscal commons, with excessive subnational spending, insufficient local taxation, and reduced production of federal public goods We find the range of parameters for which one or the other institutional regime will be preferable. The result is a fiscal-federalism version of the usual trade off between rules and discretion.

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File URL: ftp://webacademicos.udesa.edu.ar/pub/econ/doc60.pdf
File Function: First version, 2003
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia in its series Working Papers with number 60.

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Length: 40 pages
Date of creation: Aug 2003
Date of revision: Aug 2003
Handle: RePEc:sad:wpaper:60

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Keywords: Fiscal federalism; intergovernmental transfers; insurance; risk sharing; common pool;

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References

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Roberto Cortes Conde, 2008. "Spanish America Colonial Patterns: The Rio de La Plata," Working Papers 96, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised Mar 2008.
  2. Bilin Neyapti & Nida Cakir, 2007. "Does Fiscal Decentralization Promote Fiscal Discipline?," Departmental Working Papers 0708, Bilkent University, Department of Economics.
  3. Emmanuel Abuelafia & Sergio Berenztein & Miguel Braun & Luciano Di Gresia, 2005. "Who Decides on Public Expenditures?: A Political Economy Analysis of the Budget Process: The Case of Argentina," IDB Publications 21918, Inter-American Development Bank.
  4. Emanuel Kohlscheen, 2008. "Debt Bailouts And Constitutions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 46(3), pages 480-492, 07.
  5. Montiel, Peter & Serven, Luis, 2004. "Macroeconomic stability in developing countries - How much is enough?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3456, The World Bank.
  6. Ernesto Crivelli & Klaas Staal, 2008. "Size, Spillovers and Soft Budget Constraints," Working Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2008_17, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
  7. Marco Bassetto, 2009. "The Research Agenda: Marco Bassetto on the Quantitative Evaluation of Fiscal Policy Rules," EconomicDynamics Newsletter, Review of Economic Dynamics, vol. 10(2), April.
  8. Ernesto Crivelli & Klaas Staal, 2006. "Size and Soft Budget Constraints," CESifo Working Paper Series 1858, CESifo Group Munich.
  9. Russell Cooper & Hubert Kempf & Dan Peled, 2005. "Is It Is or Is It Ain't My Obligation? Regional Debt in a Fiscal Federation," NBER Working Papers 11655, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  10. Besfamille, Martin & Lockwood, Ben, 2004. "Are Hard Budget Constraints for Sub-National Governments Always Efficient?," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 717, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
  11. José Bercoff & Osvaldo Meloni, 2009. "Federal budget allocation in an emergent democracy: evidence from Argentina," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 65-83, January.
  12. Gonzalez, Christian Y. & Rosenblatt, David & Webb, Steven B., 2002. "Stabilizing intergovernmental transfers in Latin America : a complement to national/subnational fiscal rules?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2869, The World Bank.
  13. Sebastian M. Saiegh & Mariano Tommasi, 1999. "Why is Argentina’s Fiscal Federalism so Inefficient? Entering the Labyrinth," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 0, pages 169-209, May.
  14. Bilin Neyapti & Zafer Akin & Zeynep B. Cevik, 2011. "Does Fiscal Decentralization Promote Fiscal Discipline?," Departmental Working Papers 1101, Bilkent University, Department of Economics.

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