IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ays/ispwps/paper0829.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Decentralization in Bangladesh: Change Has Been Elusive

Author

Listed:
  • William F. Fox

    (The University of Tennessee)

  • Balakrishna Menon

    (The World Bank)

Abstract

In spite of their long history and constitutional status, local governments in Bangladesh have a poor record of being an efficient, accountable and responsive provider of public services at local level. Over the decades, the local government system in Bangladesh has been “more an area of policy experimentation than one of stable institutional development” (Rahman and Islam 2002: 154). Decentralization reforms are debated every few years under governments of all hues, various committees are launched, recommendations are made, and even piecemeal actions are taken. Yet, to date, an accountable and capable local state that upholds public interests at the local level remains elusive to Bangladesh. This paper analyses the factors encumbering the development of such a local state. It draws both political economy narrative and fiscal data to identify the challenges.

Suggested Citation

  • William F. Fox & Balakrishna Menon, 2008. "Decentralization in Bangladesh: Change Has Been Elusive," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0829, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    • Handle: RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0829
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://icepp.gsu.edu/files/2015/03/ispwp0829.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ehtisham Ahmad & Bob Searle, 2006. "On the Implementation of Transfers to Subnational Governments," Chapters, in: Ehtisham Ahmad & Giorgio Brosio (ed.), Handbook of Fiscal Federalism, chapter 15, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Bird, Richard M. & Smart, Michael, 2002. "Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers: International Lessons for Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 899-912, June.
    3. Maria A Albino & Raju J Singh & Ehtisham Ahmad, 2005. "Subnational Public Financial Management; Institutions and Macroeconomic Considerations," IMF Working Papers 2005/108, International Monetary Fund.
    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. United Cities and Local Governments, 2011. "Local Government Finance," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14696.

    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. Ehtisham Ahmad & Mercedes Garcia-Escribano, 2006. "Fiscal Decentralization and Public Subnational Financial Management in Peru," IMF Working Papers 2006/120, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Michael Smart, 2007. "Raising Taxes through Equalization," CESifo Working Paper Series 1926, CESifo.
    3. Vergne, Clémence, 2009. "Democracy, elections and allocation of public expenditures in developing countries," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 63-77, March.
    4. Rosario G. Manasan, 2008. "Policy Study on the National and Local Government Expenditures for Millennium Development Goals, 2000–2005," Development Economics Working Papers 22659, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    5. Duc Hong Vo, 2006. "Measuring Fiscal Decentralisation: An Entropic Approach," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 06-28, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    6. Paul Smoke, 2014. "Why theory and practice are different: The gap between principles and reality in subnational revenue systems," Chapters, in: Richard M. Bird & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), Taxation and Development: The Weakest Link?, chapter 9, pages 287-325, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. M Devendra Babu, 2004. "Finances of Panchayats in Karnataka: A Policy Paper," Working Papers 143, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
    8. Prakash Chandra Jha, 2015. "Theory of fiscal federalism: an analysis," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 17(2), pages 241-259, October.
    9. Geys, Benny & Konrad, Kai A., . "Federalism and optimal allocation across levels of governance," Chapters in Economics,, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    10. Pinaki Chakraborty & Shatakshi Garg, 2018. "Fiscal pressure of migration and horizontal fiscal inequality: Evidence from Indian experience," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-4, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Richard M. Bird, 2015. "Fiscal Decentralization and Decentralizing Tax Administration: Different Questions, Different Answers," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1509, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    12. Manasan, Rosario G., 2008. "Policy Study on the National and Local Government Expenditures for Millennium Development Goals, 2000-2005," Discussion Papers DP 2008-17, Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
    13. Stotsky, Janet G. & Chakraborty, Lekha & Gandhi, Piyush, 2018. "Impact of Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers on Gender Equality in India: An Empirical Analysis," Working Papers 18/240, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    14. Xiao-Wan Jiang, 2019. "The Impact of Government Intervention on Municipal Bond Liquidity Premium: Evidence from China," Applied Economics and Finance, Redfame publishing, vol. 6(3), pages 79-86, May.
    15. Mogues, Tewodaj & Benin, Samuel, 2012. "Do External Grants to District Governments Discourage Own Revenue Generation? A Look at Local Public Finance Dynamics in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 1054-1067.
    16. Bernd Huber & Marco Runkel, 2006. "Optimal Design of Intergovernmental Grants Under Asymmetric Information," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 13(1), pages 25-41, January.
    17. Holger Kächelein, 2011. "Fiscal Federalism And Public Debt Fiscal Instability Due To Multi Level Borrowing In A Model Of Neoclassical Growth "," Analele Stiintifice ale Universitatii "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" din Iasi - Stiinte Economice (1954-2015), Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 58, pages 123-132, november.
    18. Leonardo Letelier S. & Héctor Ormeño, 2018. "El mapa de la descentralización fiscal en Chile," Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy), Central Bank of Chile, vol. 21(3), pages 004-040, December.
    19. Kumar, Surender & Managi, Shunsuke, 2009. "Compensation for environmental services and intergovernmental fiscal transfers: The case of India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 3052-3059, October.
    20. Gonzales, Paula & Hindriks, Jean & Lockwood, Ben & Porteiro, Nicolas, 2006. "Political Budget Cycles and Fiscal Decentralization," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 742, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.

    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:ays:ispwps:paper0829. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Paul Benson). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ispgsus.html .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.