IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ays/ispwps/paper0830.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Reigning in Provincial Fiscal 'Owners': Decentralization in Lao P.D.R

Author

Abstract

Lao People’s Democratic Republic is a small single-party State with an already long but erratic history of decentralization. Political drives towards decentralization and re-centralization have alternated for more than thirty years. Today, provincial governments enjoy a great deal of autonomy and collect around the sixty percent of all government revenues from a wide array of sources including the import tariff. Most central finance functions (tax administration, customs, and treasury) are de facto controlled by the provinces. In this paper we argue that the Lao PDR system of inter-governmental fiscal relations is not really decentralized, and can better be described as a sui-generis form of de-concentration. Although provincial governors are appointed at the central level, they have a high degree of fiscal autonomy. In addition, the provincial governors appoint the heads of district offices. The system is thus absent of proper accountability mechanisms between the citizenry and its political representatives. In addition, the excessive de facto power at the provincial level implies the sub-national authorities are not accountable either to the central government. Somewhat paradoxically, the major constraint towards fiscal decentralization in Lao PDR is the absence of a strong central government with the capacity to efficiently collect revenues and be able to control and monitor expenditures at the sub-national level. Significant re-centralization will need to take place before decentralization reform can go forward.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Luís Gómez & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Cristian Sepúlveda, 2008. "Reigning in Provincial Fiscal 'Owners': Decentralization in Lao P.D.R," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0830, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    • Handle: RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0830
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://icepp.gsu.edu/files/2015/03/ispwp0830.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roy Bahl & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2013. "Sequencing Fiscal Decentralization," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 14(2), pages 641-687, November.
    2. International Monetary Fund, 2007. "Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste: Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix," IMF Staff Country Reports 2007/086, International Monetary Fund.
    3. World Bank, 2006. "World Development Indicators 2006," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 8151.
    4. Roy Bahl, 1999. "Implementation Rules For Fiscal Decentralization," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper9901, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    5. Roy Bahl & Sally Wallace, 2007. "Intergovernmental Transfers: The Vertical Sharing Dimension," Springer Books, in: Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Bob Searle (ed.), Fiscal Equalization, chapter 0, pages 205-249, Springer.
    6. World Bank, 2007. "Lao PDR : Public Expenditure Review Integrated Fiduciary Assessment," World Bank Publications - Reports 7725, The World Bank Group.
    7. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Bob Searle, 2007. "Challenges in the Design of Fiscal Equalization and Intergovernmental Transfers," Springer Books, in: Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Bob Searle (ed.), Fiscal Equalization, chapter 0, pages 3-10, Springer.
    8. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Juan Luis Gomez & Guevera Yao, 2006. "Fiscal Decentralization in the People’s Democratic Republic of Lao," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0622, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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 García-Escribano, 2011. "Constraints to Effective Fiscal Decentralization in Peru," Chapters, in: Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & François Vaillancourt (ed.), Decentralization in Developing Countries, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Roy Bahl & Geeta Sethi & Sally Wallace, 2009. "West Bengal: Fiscal Decentralization to Rural Governments: Analysis and Reform Options," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0907, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    3. Mr. Luc Eyraud & Ms. Lusine Lusinyan, 2011. "Decentralizing Spending More Than Revenue: Does it Hurt Fiscal Performance?," IMF Working Papers 2011/226, International Monetary Fund.
    4. World Bank, 2007. "China : Improving Rural Public Finance for the Harmonious Society," World Bank Publications - Reports 7664, The World Bank Group.
    5. World Bank, 2011. "Lao PDR Public Expenditure Review," World Bank Publications - Reports 20265, The World Bank Group.
    6. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Cristian Sepulveda, 2012. "Toward a More General Theory of Revenue Assignments," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1231, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    7. Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza & Nicolas Guadalupe Zuniga Espinoza, 2010. "Fiscal Transfers a Curse or Blessing? Evidence of Their Effect on Tax Effort for Municipalities in Sinaloa, Mexico," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1030, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    8. Darshini J S & K Gayithri, 2019. "Fiscal dependency of States in India," Working Papers 433, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
    9. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Cristian Sepulveda, 2020. "A Theoretical Rationale for the Fiscal-Gap Model of Equalization Transfers," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 76(1), pages 1-28.
    10. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Cristian Sepúlveda, 2011. "Intergovernmental Transfers in Latin America: A Policy Reform Perspective," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1108, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    11. Beth Wynter, Carlene & De Loo, Ivo, 2024. "Fiscal decentralization in the nude: Discursive struggles and the stalling of its implementation in Jamaica," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    12. Gu, Gyun Cheol, 2012. "Developing Composite Indicators for Fiscal Decentralization: Which Is The Best Measure For Whom?," MPRA Paper 43032, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Kim, Aehyung, 2008. "Decentralization and the provision of public services : framework and implementation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4503, The World Bank.
    14. Turley Gerard, 2022. "A review of Ireland’s Local Property Tax," Administration, Sciendo, vol. 70(4), pages 1-25, December.
    15. Nara F. Monkam, 2010. "Mobilising Tax Revenue to Finance Development: The Case for Property Taxation in Francophone Africa," Working Papers 201026, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    16. Ms. Izabela Karpowicz, 2012. "Narrowing Vertical Fiscal Imbalances in Four European Countries," IMF Working Papers 2012/091, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Irina N. Ilina & Carol S. Leonard & Evgenij E. Plisetskij, 2014. "Russian Regional Resilience: Finance, Cooperation And Resource Abundance (A Case Study Of Khanty-Mansiysk)," HSE Working papers WP BRP 15/PA/2014, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    18. Torgler, Benno & Schneider, Friedrich & Schaltegger, Christoph A., 2007. "With or Against the People? The Impact of a Bottom-Up Approach on Tax Morale and the Shadow Economy," Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series qt6331x6vz, Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics.
    19. Azevedo, Viviane & Bouillon, César P., 2009. "Social Mobility in Latin America: A Review of Existing Evidence," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1656, Inter-American Development Bank.
    20. Nasreen, Samia & Anwar, Sofia & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2017. "Financial stability, energy consumption and environmental quality: Evidence from South Asian economies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1105-1122.

    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:paper0830. 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: Paul Benson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ispgsus.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.