Fiscal Decentralization in EU-27 Member States
Keywords:
lokalne finance, international comparison, local financing, local governmentAbstract
The purpose of this article is to compare systems of fiscal decentralization in EU member states according to selected quantitative criteria. The results indicate that a higher number of lower levels of government usually indicate a greater share of local finance; however, this finding does not confirm the inverse link. Although the structure of expenditures is similar, the shares of funds for the implementation of in- dividual tasks differ significantly. On average, the countries allocate most funds to education, social security, healthcare, and administration, with only a quarter of the countries recording the same or higher amounts of revenues than expenditures. Most countries still cover the existing deficit through transfers from the central gover- nment, equalization schemes, or borrowed funds.
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