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Open research questions in Local Government Finance and Decentralization

74 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 3,046 Local Government Finance and Decentralization papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Government Authorities. African Journal of Applied Research, 12(1), 228-257. Makalanga, L. (2026).

    Determinants of Effective Revenue Collection in Local Government of Tanzania: The Case of Dodoma City Council, Dodoma Region · 2026 · DOI

  • The study was limited to a selected group of developed countries, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to developing or resource-constrained Politická ekonomie, 2026, 74 (3), 536–559, https://doi. Further investigation of natural resources and economic growth: Do natural resources depress economic growth? Resources Policy, 50, 312–321.

    Environmental Regulations and Sustainable Development: The Role of Fiscal Decentralization and Clean Energy · 2026 · DOI

  • The results of the research may create the basis for further research of the tax potential in V4 countries as well as for application practice (besides pro futuro legislative changes, more efficient tax collection and more objective real estate taxation).

    Real Property Tax in the Countries of Visegrad Group – Comparative View · 2022 · DOI

  • The authors indicate, however, that the main problem for local self-government units is insufficient own income, which forces them to increase the pool of funds transferred from the central budget to self-governments in the form of grants and subventions and to look for various forms of loans for their activities.

    Financial Condition of Local Government in Poland vs StructuralReforms of Municipal Government in Scandinavian States · 2020 · DOI

  • Using the UK as an example, we highlight that one of MMT’s most important, but under-explored, contributions is its potential to re-frame the role of tax from both a macroeconomic and social policy perspective.

    Modern Monetary Theory and the Changing Role of Tax in Society · 2020 · DOI

  • It remains to be hoped that the relevant ministries will eventually succeed in regulating and controlling local governments in a more adequate way, that the local governments currently lagging behind will catch up with the more advanced ones and that citizens, associations, the media, union trades, political parties and independent politicians will finally start using the numerous existing budget transparency tools and mechanisms and engage constructively in budget processes.

    Budget transparency in Croatian counties, cities and municipalities (November 2018 – March 2019) · 2019 · DOI

  • Although the development of punctuated equilibrium theory makes broad reference to the bureaucratic procedures that regulate budgetary decision making and makes reasonable assumptions about the influence of those procedures on the dynamic of resource allocation, little is known about how the specific mechanisms work.

    Budgetary Punctuations: A Fiscal Management Perspective · 2019 · DOI

  • Summary Although it is yet to be systematically investigated where the initiative for fiscal decentralization came from, limited evidence suggests that decentralization offers great opportunities to improve the delivery of public services, and that the result depends on the type of decentralization that has been implemented and the institutions that implement it.

    Fiscal Decentralization - World Experience and Our Practice · 2017 · DOI

  • The discontinued fiscal decentralization process and some of the recent attempts to address the problem of increasing indebtedness among local authorities created prerequisites for an increase in the local tax burden, while prospects for improving the fiscal situation of municipalities are still lacking.

    Financial Decentralization: Its State and Perspectives · 2017 · DOI

  • The theoretical argument is that PBB does not permanently change the spending structure for various reasons, including but not limited to the lack of clear linkages between performance results and resource allocation.

    An Evaluation of Performance-Based Budget Reform in Asian Countries · 2017 · DOI

  • What is it about federal governance that makes it so attractive to economists, political philosophers, and legal scholars and is there any evidence that would suggest all this attention is warranted? Proponents see federalism as a means to more efficient public and private economies, as the foundation for increased political participation and democratic stability, and as important check on governmental abuses of personal rights and liberties.

    Federalism's Values and the Value of Federalism · 2008 · DOI

  • ABSTRACT Theories of behavior exist in most subfields of political science yet, after seventy years of research, there is still no theory of Lack of consensus on the proper focus approach to and status of budgeting theory as well as disagreement on a basic definition of the concept have militated the conceptual discourse and iterative debate necessary to develop theory.

    On the Lack of a Budget Theory · 1997

  • More recently, Newman (1983) and Plaut and Pluta (1983) both use cross sectional data from two time periods, the former finding negative effects of corporate tax rates and the latter yielding mixed results.

    The Effect of State and Local Taxes on Economic Growth: A Time Series--Cross Section Approach · 1985 · DOI

  • The dummy's coefficient reportedly was not significant, and Moore again concluded that the results were inconsistent with overcapitalization (ECH).

    Aneconomic analysis of government ownership and reculation · 1974 · DOI

  • But this finding needs to be further examined, in the context of case studies and macro-analyses, since the major premise of official decentralization plans has been that such plans would lower alienation and the level of potential violence. The level of such resistance, the potential for it and whether it is realized among public employees should be examined. In any event, even if decentralization is limited to the territorial concept alone, it is inconceivable that such a plan could be successful in an industrial city like Detroit without the support of the city’s unions.

    Decentralizing City Government · 1974 · DOI

  • Only welfare recipients mobile to poor recipients or residency analysis of the case in which welfare is limited can move; Their movement restrictions limited by the price of land and locational disadvantages Only a normative mobile and concern provided here.

    Income redistribution as a local public good · 1973 · DOI

  • Local governments are increasingly expected to maintain fiscal discipline while simultaneously expanding social protection, yet the implications of these competing objectives for welfare spending remain unclear.

    The efficiency paradox: When financial efficiency reduces social assistance allocation in Indonesian local governments · 2026 · DOI

  • Additionally, the model provided insights into the extent to which these factors explain changes in personal income tax revenue, offering a foundation for further research on the impact of regional transformation on the tax revenue of local government units.

    The Impact of Regional Transformation on Tax Revenue of Municipalities in the Silesian Voivodeship: An Attempt to Develop a Model · 2025 · DOI

  • Takeaway for practice Although our findings are limited by the single case study approach, the creation–capture–destruction heuristic we developed can help planners modify their expectations of the future and spend economic development dollars more effectively in the present.

    Value Creation, Capture, and Destruction · 2022 · DOI

  • Romania has the problem of the incomplete devolution of powers and the limited financial independence of local governments, which basically means that the principle of subsidiarity is insufficiently implemented.

    Administrative Capacity as a Constraint to Fiscal Decentralization. The Case of Romania and Poland · 2020 · DOI

  • But how can we explain the global spread of taxes around the world? While most countries nowadays have adopted similar tax instruments, the timing of legislation has varied widely.

    Democracy and the global spread of progressive taxes · 2020 · DOI

  • Yet, whether or not the 2018 vote also ended the era of budget austerity remains uncertain.

    What Should Be Done with a “House in Order”? An Economic Perspective on Post-Liberal Quebec · 2020 · DOI

  • Given the crucial role of Green parties in modern party systems, surprisingly little is known about the impact that Green parties in governments have on distributive issues, on the spending or the revenue side of distributive politics.

    Greens in government: the distributive policies of a culturally progressive force · 2020 · DOI

  • While it is widely accepted that governments’ ability to tax is shaped by politics, the precise mechanisms through which this relationship takes place in practice remain elusive.

    Tax bargaining, fiscal contracts, and fiscal capacity in Ghana: A long-term perspective · 2020 · DOI

  • To fill this gap in the literature, this study examines and compares the cutback strategies of local governments across the two recent recessions – the ‘dot-com bubble’ in the early 2000s and the Great Recession in the late 2000s.

    Cutback management and path dependency: evidence from the two recent recessions · 2019 · DOI

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74 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 3,046 Local Government Finance and Decentralization papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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