Issue #2 (Volume 12 2023)

The modeling of the municipalities’ tax burden is one of the most relevant issues, especially in terms of municipal competitiveness. It challenges the definition and delimitation of local authorities’ taxing powers. This study aims to analyze the level of taxation of Portuguese municipalities and how local policies contribute to the definition of a ranking of fiscally more competitive municipalities. The paper applies quantitative methods based on the fiscal information made available by municipalities. It has been determined that it is possible to classify municipalities as more or less competitive through their tax supply, mainly at the level of their ability to set tax rates. In 2021, compared to 2020, the most fiscally competitive municipalities were located in the Autonomous Region of the Azores (Corvo (95.128%); Vila do Pico (95.128%); Madalena (95.128%); Povoação (95.078%); Santa Cruz das Flores (95.072%); Angra do Heroísmo (95.044%); Nordeste (95.036%); Vila Franca do Campo (95.036%); Horta (95.017%); and Ponta Delgada (95.017%)). The study also verified the maintenance of fiscal competitiveness among the most fiscally attractive municipalities, despite having several types of fiscal attraction policy options at their disposal, always conditioned by national legislation. This means fiscal policy is an instrument of competition for attracting companies, people, and productive investment to local municipalities. The existence of an international dogma favorable to the increasing attribution of administrative and financial autonomy to local authorities mainly supports this phenomenon.

The financial self-sufficiency of communities determines their ability to create additional jobs, attract investment resources, offer quality social services, and improve the population’s living standards and well-being. The study aims to identify the casual relationships between financial self-sufficiency and local economic development of Ukrainian territorial communities during economic instability. The paper used integrated assessment based on a spatial approach (identifying the level of local economic development), indicative method (calculating empirical values of financial self-sufficiency of communities), VEC model (analyzing the sensitivity of local economic development to changes in financial self-sufficiency), balanced multi-component regression method (modeling the relationship between local economic development and financial self-sufficiency). Data were gathered on all territorial communities of Ukraine in 2021. The results show that the highest level of local economic development was observed in Dnipropetrovsk oblast (empirical coefficient equal to 0.855), high levels in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Kyiv, and Poltava oblasts (0.787; 0.687; 0.684; 0.663 each, respectively), and moderate levels in Zakarpattia (0.448) and Kirovohrad (0.433) oblasts. With increased financial self-sufficiency, local economic development can exceed 2%; a 1% increase in the decentralization of tax revenues and expenditures simultaneously leads to an increase in the attractiveness of the investment climate as an indicator of local economic development (2.3-6.6%). The study proves that the territorial communities of the regions characterized by a low level of local economic development demonstrated higher values of decentralization of interbudgetary revenues than those with higher values of local economic development.

The study examines the impact of fiscal decentralization on Ethiopia’s Subnational (Regional) economic growth. The study followed a quantitative research procedure employing data from 2008 to 2021. The units of analysis in the study are Ethiopia’s sub-national governments (SNGs). The study used the two-step System General Method of Moments (GMM) of dynamic panel estimation because it resolves concerns such as endogeneity and heteroscedasticity. The study’s findings revealed that expenditure, revenue, and composite decentralization have a statistically significant negative effect on regional economic growth. Moreover, among the control variables, inflation and government size have a statistically significant detrimental effect on regional economic growth. However, human capital has no significant effect. Ethiopia’s fiscal decentralization contradicts the goals and theoretical underpinnings of fiscal federalism. This may be because fiscal decentralization and economic activities function within an ethnically based federalism framework. The primary implication is that the federal government needs to reevaluate the transfer of fiscal authority to SNGs. Transforming tax policy into a robust institutional mechanism for economic growth is vital. The revenue and spending sides of intergovernmental relations also need to be closely related. As opposed to prior studies, which utilized one or two fiscal decentralization indicators, this study used multiple indicators, making the study more thorough and closing the knowledge gap.

The purpose of this study is to explore the involvement of citizens in the administration of local budgets, which significantly contribute to the financial and economic independence of rural areas. The study presents the findings of a sociological research conducted in the Turkestan region, Kazakhstan. The survey included 259 rural residents from 14 rural districts and two significant cities in the region, all aged 18 and above and permanent residents of these areas.
The analysis is based on the survey results, focusing on the overall level of citizens’ engagement in decision-making regarding local budget formation and distribution in rural areas. The study reveals a low level of citizen participation in managing the local budget. While general meetings and local gatherings serve as primary avenues for citizen involvement, only 79.9% of respondents reported participating in budget discussions, with only 20.1% of their opinions considered during budget allocation.
Finally, the study identifies several factors that negatively affect effective citizen participation in local budget management. These factors include a lack of timely awareness and information about upcoming planning and budget meetings (56.4%), insufficient transparency in the actions of local executive leaders (Akims) (14.3%), bureaucratic complexity and a formal approach to budget discussions (3.5%), and low levels of citizen trust in rural district Akims (5.4%).

Acknowledgment
This study is funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (BR18574203).