Other Public Sector Study
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Publication
The World Bank's Support for Subnational Governance in Large Federal Countries: Lessons Learned from Argentina, Brazil and Nigeria
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022)Limited local tax revenue and low public sector efficiency are two critical problems of public sector management and key constraints for the economic and social development of many subnational governments in large federal countries. To create fiscal space without compromising macroeconomic stability and fiscal sustainability, there is a need for reforms that lead to better use of public resources and improved expenditure efficiency through reforms in budgeting, procurement, and tax administration. This note presents lessons learned from the World Bank’s subnational governance projects in three large federal countries - Argentina, Brazil and Nigeria - between 2008-2017. These lessons learned can be useful in shaping the design of future subnational governance projects in other federal countries, particularly those projects seeking to improve service delivery, public expenditure systems and core governance institutions. -
Publication
The Political Economy of the 2016 Tobacco and Proposed Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax Increases in Colombia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-09)In 2008, Colombia joined the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which includes measures related to price and taxes designed to reduce supply and demand. By 2015, the overall prevalence of smokers in the country had decreased slightly but still reached 17 percent. The impact of tobacco on the mortality and quality of life of Colombians was estimated as a direct loss of more than 600,000 years of life and more than 26,000 deaths each year. The price of cigarettes in Colombia in 2015 was so low (approximately 2 US dollars per pack of 20 cigarettes), that it was higher than just one other country in Latin America and in the Caribbean. At the time, Colombia was contending with shrinking oil revenue (owing to a sharp drop in oil prices) and constantly rising public expenditure. In the health sector cost pressures stemmed, among other factors, from a change in the government's responsibility for health coverage in the subsidized system that covers the cost of health services for the country's lowest population segments. It was in this context that the government in early 2015 created a committee of experts responsible for proposing changes in the country's tax structure. This document describes the course of events that led to the phased adjustment of the tobacco tax approved by Congress in December 2016, with a view to aligning the price of cigarettes in Colombia with the Latin American average. Despite the failed attempt to introduce a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, the discussion was framed and will most likely be renewed in the future. -
Publication
Dominican Republic Gearing Up for a More Efficient Tax System: An Assessment of Tax Efficiency, a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Tax Expenditures, and an Exploration of Labor Informality and its Tax Implications
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-06)This study discusses options how to increase the Dominican Republic tax revenue and attempts to identify priority areas for efficiency-enhancing reforms. A 2016 World Bank report on Dominican fiscal policy found that the country's tax expenditures were poorly targeted and regressively distributed, benefitting the wealthy more than the poor, and imposed considerable fiscal and economic costs. The report also showed that the tax contribution of the informal sector is extremely low, despite the fact that informal workers account for roughly half of the active labor force. As the new government prepares the ‘fiscal pact' first described in the country's development strategy 2030, policymakers will require a more thorough understanding of these issues and their fiscal, economic, and distributional implications. Thus, building on past analytical work, the present study focuses on two priority areas: tax efficiency and labor informality. Chapter One reveals that the DR's strong and sustained economic growth in recent years has had only a modest impact on revenues' efficiency from value-added tax, corporate income tax, personal income tax, and minor taxes. An analysis of tax-collection efficiency reveals several feasible options for boosting tax revenues. Chapter Two explores the characteristics, correlates, and effects of widespread labor informality in the DR. Identifying the correlates of informality yield important implications for promoting formalization and thereby broadening the income-tax base. -
Publication
Peru: Building a More Efficient and Equitable Fiscal Decentralization System
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-05-02)Over the past two decades, Peru has achieved remarkable economic success. Average annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has exceeded 5 percent since 2001. Poverty has been consistently reduced, and sustained improvements have been observed in social and human development. The poverty incidence rate fell from 58 to 23 percent between 2004 and 2014, and households’ incomes at the bottom 40 percent grew 50 percent faster than the national average. The structural transformation of Peru’s economy striking fast and widely shared growth transformed Peru into an upper-middle income and diversified economy. This report analyzes recent trends of the fiscal decentralization process in Peru and presents a set of reform options designed to harvest the envisaged efficiency and equity gains in service delivery that the fiscal decentralization was expected to bring. The analysis and policy options are presented in a conceptually logical order: (i) departing from institutional arrangements in the vertical structure of subnational governments passing to (ii) the need of a clearer definition of spending responsibilities among levels of government that needs to be followed by (iii) a commensurate redefinition of revenue assignments and (iv) enhancing equalization role of the transfer system. -
Publication
Peru - Selected Issues in Fiscal Policy: Taxation and Equity
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06-11)This report takes an in-depth look, from a policy perspective, at the trade-offs between increasing tax collection and improving the equity of the fiscal system. As part of this effort, the report places the Peruvian tax system in an international context and considers the key challenges the government is facing in its drive to increase revenue. It also conducts qualitative and quantitative analyses of the impact of taxes and transfers on inequality and on the distribution of income. The report then makes several policy proposals that would increase tax collection without jeopardizing equity, and it then simulates the impacts of these changes on collection and equity. This advice spanned the 2012-2014 period, and included research on several tax policy-related issues, such as legal advice on double-taxation treaties and in-depth analyses of tax exemptions. To keep the focus tight, some of the work is not included in this report. Contributions were originally written in Spanish to provide the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) with timely advice on the subject and were discussed with the counterparts during and immediately after its preparation. As a result of prioritizing this process, two teams focused on different areas of research and were able to contribute to the analytical base behind the ongoing tax reform. The report summarizes the main elements of this process and resulting advice. It comes out at the same time as the finance ministry announces the first set of tax reforms that were informed by this work. -
Publication
Review of International Practices for Determining Medium Term Resource Needs of Spending Agencies
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-05-01)This volume presents two research reports carried out with the objective of advancing practical knowledge in costing and use of cost information in the public sector. Both reports were carried out with support of the Governance Partnership Facility Trust Fund and in partnership between the Brazilian and Indonesian country offices of the World Bank. The first report aims to review international practices for determining medium term resource needs of spending agencies (what is also referred to as bottom-up costing for medium term expenditure frameworks). The principal objective is to compile comparative information on practices and methodologies used by selected OECD countries to determine program costs as part of their medium term expenditure planning. The second report details the experiences of three selected subnational governments in Brazil: Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul and Pernambuco with the development and use of cost information. The main objective is to present comparative information on practices adopted by these jurisdictions. It is expected that this volume helps to fill a gap in the technical literature by presenting practical examples of the development and use of cost information within budgetary and fiscal planning frameworks in advanced and developing countries both at the national and subnational level. -
Publication
Colombia - Programmatic Strategic Engagement on Public Sector Management and Governance : Concept Note
(Washington, DC, 2011-03-14)This concept note presents the strategic engagement of the World Bank in the areas of public sector management and governance in Colombia. It describes the short and medium term approach through which the Bank will provide support to the country on those areas of reform, as well as their links and synergies with other sectors activities. It also provides a summary of the Bank's public sector management and governance recent activities and their links with the program proposed by this strategy. This concept note lays out the strategy and program of financial support, knowledge and convening services to continue supporting the Government's public sector reform agenda in a demand-driven and flexible manner. The program aims to contribute to improve sustained and inclusive growth and competitiveness through strengthened government's management and improved service delivery. Its objectives are aligned with the National Development Plan (NDP) pillars and cross-cutting themes of good governance and regional development and integration, as well the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) outcomes. The remainder of this note is structured as follows: (i) section two summarizes the trend public sector reforms have been following in Colombia; (ii) section three provides an overview of the trajectory the reform key National Government Management Institutions (NGMI) has followed in Colombia, summarizing the current status of Government's efforts in this area and outlining the pending policy reform agenda; (iii) section four presents a review of past Bank engagement in NGMI' s reforms and a description of the strategy to respond to the Government's priorities and pending reform agenda, including key expected outputs; (iv) section five provides an overview of the trajectory decentralization reform has followed in Colombia, summarizing the current status of Government's efforts in this area and outlining the pending policy reform agenda; (v) section six presents a review of past Bank engagement in decentralization reforms and a description of the strategy to respond to the Government's priorities and pending reform agenda, including key expected outputs; and, (vi) section seven contains a resource section, describing the timeline of proposed activities, budget, team composition, and processes for quality review, monitoring and evaluation. -
Publication
Peru - Public financial management performance report : based on the performance measurement framework (PEFA)
(World Bank, 2009-04-15)The report based on the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) methodology is to serve Peruvians authorities and officials as a baseline and reference for the monitoring of Management of Public Finances (GFP) in the country. Also, it feeds and updates the dialogue between the government and various agencies and bilateral development cooperation in the area of GFP, the achievements and shortcomings of reform processes that are underway or are proposed in the future. The report also helps these agencies to determine country eligibility for a new program budget support or, possibly, to verify compliance with general conditions or special disbursement of GFP linked to a program previously approved. In addition, the report fosters discussion on the formulation or revision of an integrated program of public finance or the development or revision of a support program for public finance and institutional coordination between different agencies. -
Publication
El Salvador : Policy Dialogue and Consensus Building Non-Lending Technical Assistance
(Washington, DC, 2009-01)The Non-lending Technical Assistance (NLTA) to support policy dialogue and consensus building in El Salvador was a just-in-time response to support the Bank s re-engagement in the country in the context of a transition period characterized by: a) the political transition process in the country including the presidential and Congress pre-election and election periods and the change of administration; b) the impact of the global economic crisis hitting a highly vulnerable local economy; and c) the preparation of the Bank s Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) aiming at re-engaging and reactivating a program in a country with minimum activity in the past four years. A country characterized with a highly polarized political system was going through a historic transition period with a new government coming from the opposition party for the first time in 20 years. The transition that took place in mid 2009 was also marked with the strong hit of the global economic crisis that impacted on the overall country s macroeconomic performance and seriously limited the capacity of the government to respond to urgent needs. Within this context the proposed NLTA was conceived to provide support to the country policy dialogue by facilitating the discussion of critical aspects in the context of the adverse economic and social situation. -
Publication
Chile : A Strategy to Promote Innovative Small and Medium Enterprises
(Washington, DC, 2004-05-21)This study is to provide the Government of Chile with a review of the portfolio of small and medium enterprise (SMEs) development programs and the institutions that provide them, leading to recommendations to improve the effectiveness of a streamlined portfolio. This emphasis is important for economic reasons, given the sectors role in employment, and the possibility of improving its integration into the national economy and export-oriented production and marketing chains. However, this analysis also identifies areas where SMEs can more effectively leverage government programs to become more productive, efficient, and innovative. The analysis is based on interviews with key policymakers, managers and other staff of the government institutions responsible for most of the programs secondary reports, and discussions with small business managers, business association leaders, academicians and financial intermediaries. The report is organized as follows: The first chapter reviews the evolution of the macroeconomic and business environment in Chile, and provides the theoretical arguments upon which the governments intervention in favor of SMEs has been based; second chapter examines the characteristics of the SME sector, as well as key determinants of SME productivity and growth; third chapter describes the obstacles to SME development, such as constraints to financial resources; fourth chapter recommends a streamlined portfolio of private sector assistance projects and provides an institutional analysis of Production Development Corporation (Corporacion de Fomento de la Produccion) (CORFO), Agricultural Development Institute (Instituto de Desarrollo Agropecuario) (INDAP) and Technical Cooperation Service of Chile (Servicio de Cooperacion Tecnica de Chile) (SERCOTEC); fifth chapter focuses on programs that promote innovation, technology and networks, and finally sixth chapter offers strategic and operational recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the Governments investment in SME programs.