IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/5792.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Ripe for a big bang ? assessing the political feasibility of legislative reforms in the Philippines'local government code

Author

Listed:
  • Matsuda, Yasuhiko

Abstract

In the Philippines'highly decentralized political system, smooth functioning of inter-governmental relations is key to effective service delivery and good governance overall. Although considered a milestone, the 1991 Local Government Code, the Philippines'basic legislation governing inter-governmental relations, contains provisions that thwart vertical and horizontal resource equalization among local government units, and contributes to mismatch between expenditure assignments and the fiscal capacities of the local government units. Numerous technical reports have called for adjustments to the existing revenue and expenditure assignments, yet no tangible progress has been made. This paper assesses the prospects of legislative reforms on the revenue side of the decentralization framework. Using a variety of approaches ranging from a historical analysis to institutional analysis of the legislative dynamics in the Philippine congress, it assesses the prospects of a major overhaul of the Local Government Code and concludes that a significant reform is highly unlikely under the conditions prevailing in the late 2010s. By implication, any effort to improve the Philippines'inter-governmental framework will have to settle for sub-optimal incremental measures within the inefficient revenue assignment arrangement.

Suggested Citation

  • Matsuda, Yasuhiko, 2011. "Ripe for a big bang ? assessing the political feasibility of legislative reforms in the Philippines'local government code," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5792, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5792
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2011/09/09/000158349_20110909084732/Rendered/PDF/WPS5792.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gamm, Gerald & Kousser, Thad, 2010. "Broad Bills or Particularistic Policy? Historical Patterns in American State Legislatures," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 104(1), pages 151-170, February.
    2. Dillinger, William & Webb, Steven B., 1999. "Decentralization and fiscal management in Colombia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2122, The World Bank.
    3. Kawanaka, Takeshi, 2010. "Interaction of powers in the Philippine presidential system," IDE Discussion Papers 233, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    4. Benjamin E. Diokno, 2003. "Decentralization in the Philippines After Ten Years: What Have We Learned? What Have I Learned?," UP School of Economics Discussion Papers 200308, University of the Philippines School of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Manasan, Rosario G., 2018. "An Assessment of the Fiscal Features of the PDP Laban Model of Philippine Federalism 1.0 and the Gonzales-De Vera Federal Model," Discussion Papers DP 2018-14, Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
    2. Verena Fritz & Brian Levy & Rachel Ort, 2014. "Problem-Driven Political Economy Analysis : The World Bank's Experience," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 16389, December.
    3. Rosario G. Manasan, 2018. "An Assessment of the Fiscal Features of the PDP Laban Model of Philippine Federalism 1.0 and the Gonzales-De Vera Federal Model," Working Papers id:12931, eSocialSciences.
    4. ElMassah, Suzanna & Mohieldin, Mahmoud, 2020. "Digital transformation and localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. World Bank, 2006. "Republic of Colombia," World Bank Publications - Reports 33924, The World Bank Group.
    2. Diego E. Pinilla & Juan de Dios Jiménez & Roberto Montero, 2015. "La descentralización fiscal en América Latina. Balance de un proceso," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 17(33), pages 133-160, July-Dece.
    3. Noel, Michel, 2000. "Building subnational debt markets in developing and transition economies : a framework for analysis, policy reform, and assistance strategy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2339, The World Bank.
    4. Leonardo Bonilla-Mejía & Iván Higuera-Mendieta, 2017. "Political Alignment in the Time of Weak Parties: Electoral Advantages and Subnational Transfers in Colombia," Documentos de Trabajo Sobre Economía Regional y Urbana 15746, Banco de la República, Economía Regional.
    5. World Bank, 2002. "Cali, Colombia : Toward a City Development Strategy," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14086, December.
    6. Cadena Ximena, 2002. "¿La descentralización empereza? Efecto de las transferencias sobre los ingresos tributarios municipales en Colombia," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, September.
    7. Yakovlev, Pavel A. & Tosun, Mehmet S. & Lewis, William P., 2018. "The Fiscal Consequences of State Legislative Term Limits," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 48(3), January.
    8. Violeta Vulovic, 2010. "The effect of sub-national borrowing control on fiscal sustainability: How to regulate?," Working Papers 2010/36, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    9. Elio Londero, 2005. "‘Market Discipline’, Lending Ceilings and Subnational Finance," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 575-590, November.
    10. Richard C. Witmer & Joshua Johnson & Frederick J. Boehmke, 2014. "American Indian Policy in the States," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1043-1063, December.
    11. Ana María Iregui & Jorge Ramos & Luz Amparo Saavedra, 2001. "Análisis De La Descentralización Fiscal En Colombia," Borradores de Economia 1984, Banco de la Republica.
    12. Gerardo A. Villa D., 2005. "Resena sobre el ajuste fiscal territorial después de la Constitución de 1991," Ensayos Sobre Economía Regional (ESER) 3458, Banco de la República - Economía Regional.
    13. Faguet, Jean-Paul, 2014. "Decentralization and Governance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 2-13.
    14. Goodman, Christopher B & Hatch, Megan E. & McDonald, Bruce D. III, 2020. "State Preemption of Local Laws: Origins and Modern Trends," SocArXiv u2f4x, Center for Open Science.
    15. Yakovlev, Pavel & Tosun, Mehmet S. & Lewis, William P., 2012. "Legislative Term Limits and State Aid to Local Governments," IZA Discussion Papers 6456, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Gilberto M. Llanto, 2012. "The Assignment of Functions and Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in the Philippines Twenty Years after Decentralization," UP School of Economics Discussion Papers 201205, University of the Philippines School of Economics.
    17. Escresa Laarni & Garoupa Nuno, 2012. "Judicial Politics in Unstable Democracies: The Case of the Philippine Supreme Court, An Empirical Analysis 1986-2010," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-39, April.
    18. Luis Fernando Ramírez Hernández & Manuel Beltrán Garzón, 2009. "Justificación económica de la descentralización: un análisis desde las finanzas regionales," Revista Equidad y Desarrollo, Universidad de la Salle, August.
    19. Benjamin E. Diokno, 2010. "Philippine fiscal behavior in recent history," Philippine Review of Economics, University of the Philippines School of Economics and Philippine Economic Society, vol. 47(1), pages 39-87, June.
    20. Goodman, Christopher B, 2019. "State Legislative Ideology & the Preemption of City Ordinances: The Case of Worker Rights Laws," SocArXiv 2mnws, Center for Open Science.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5792. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.