IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ays/ispwps/paper0904.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

South Africa’s Provincial Equitable Share: An Assessment of Issues and Proposals for Reform

Author

Abstract

The design of any system of transfers is a complex matter, and in practice very few countries are able to get it right, especially at the start of a process of decentralized system of finance. It is quite obvious that South Africa has made great strides in the design of its transfer system, primarily comprised of: an unconditional grant distributed by formula, the “Provincial Equitable Share” (PES); a system of conditional grants; and several other non-conditional transfers. In this report we focus exclusively on the analysis of the existing PES transfer and also on possible options for its reform. Our report consists of three main parts. We first summarize the main features of the PES. We then focus on what may be lacking with the current system. We finish with options for reform.

Suggested Citation

  • James Alm & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2009. "South Africa’s Provincial Equitable Share: An Assessment of Issues and Proposals for Reform," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0904, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    • Handle: RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0904
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://icepp.gsu.edu/files/2015/03/ispwp0904.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Katharine L. Bradbury & Bo Zhao, 2007. "Measuring disparities in non-school costs and revenue capacity among Massachusetts cities and towns," Working Papers 06-19, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    2. Roy Bahl & Sally Wallace & Musharraf Cyan, 2008. "Pakistan: Provincial Government Taxation," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0807, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    3. Jameson Boex & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2006. "Local Government Finance Reform in Developing Countries," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-59949-9, December.
    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. United Cities and Local Governments, 2011. "Local Government Finance," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14696.
    2. Ehtisham Ahmad, 2010. "Why is it so Difficult to Implement a GST in Pakistan?," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 15(Special E), pages 139-169, September.
    3. Faiz Ur Rehman & Muhammad Nasir, 2018. "In the Same Boat, but not Equals: The Heterogeneous Effects of Indirect Taxation on Child Health in Punjab-Pakistan," PIDE-Working Papers 2018:158, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    4. Ahmad, Ehtisham, 2010. "Why is it so difficult to implement a GST in Pakistan?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 36379, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Adnan Q. Khan & Asim I. Khwaja & Benjamin A. Olken, 2016. "Tax Farming Redux: Experimental Evidence on Performance Pay for Tax Collectors," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(1), pages 219-271.
    6. Katharine L. Bradbury & Bo Zhao, 2008. "Designing state aid formulas: the case of a new formula for distributing municipal aid in Massachusetts," Working Papers 08-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    7. Bob Searle, 2011. "Decentralization in the Post-Conflict African Environment: Sierra Leone and Southern Sudan," Chapters, in: Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & François Vaillancourt (ed.), Decentralization in Developing Countries, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Admad, Ehtisham, 2010. "The political-economy of tax reforms in Pakistan: the ongoing saga of the GST," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 38361, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Roy Bahl & Sally Wallace & Musharraf Cyan, 2008. "The Challenge of Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in Pakistan: The Property Tax Division," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0825, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    10. Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés & Vidal-Bover, MIquel, 2022. "Unfunded mandates and the economic impact of decentralisation. When finance does not follow function," CEPR Discussion Papers 17613, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Masaki, Takaaki, 2018. "The impact of intergovernmental transfers on local revenue generation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 173-186.
    12. Serdar Yilmaz & Varsha Venugopal, 2011. "Obstacles to Decentralization in Ethiopia: Political Controls versus Discretion and Accountability," Chapters, in: Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & François Vaillancourt (ed.), Decentralization in Developing Countries, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Richard M. Bird, 2010. "Central and Subnational VATs in Federal Countries," Chapters, in: Ehtisham Ahmad & Abdulrazak Al Faris (ed.), Fiscal Reforms in the Middle East, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Li, Tianyu & Du, Tongwei, 2021. "Vertical fiscal imbalance, transfer payments, and fiscal sustainability of local governments in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 392-404.
    15. World Bank, 2010. "Domestic Terms of Trade in Pakistan : Implications for Agricultural Pricing and Taxation Policies," World Bank Publications - Reports 12448, The World Bank Group.
    16. James Alm & Mir Ahmad Khan, 2008. "Assessing Enterprise Taxation and the Investment Climate in Pakistan," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0810, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    17. Takaaki Masaki, 2016. "The impact of intergovernmental transfers on local revenue generation in Africa: Evidence from Tanzania," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-113, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. World Bank, 2011. "Development of 13 Mozambican Municipalities in Central and Northern Mozambique : Summary report," World Bank Publications - Reports 2768, The World Bank Group.
    19. Ahmad, Ehtisham, 2010. "The political-economy of tax reforms in Pakistan: the ongoing saga of the GST," Discussion Papers 95948, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    20. Roy Bahl & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2013. "Sequencing Fiscal Decentralization," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 14(2), pages 641-687, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    South Africa; provincial government; fiscal decentralziation; grants; Provincial Equitable Share (PES);
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:paper0904. 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.