Urban property taxation in developing countries

The property tax is the most widely used source of municipal tax revenue in the developing world, but its current yield is often insubstantial. This paper has two objectives. The first is to assess the policy arguments for the use of property taxes as a municipal revenue source. The second is to review the revenue performance of property taxation and define practical ways to improve it. Tax policy must ensure that the rates are set high enough to make tax collecting worthwhile. Administrative reforms should support simple procedures for property discovery and valuation, suited to the characteristics of the local tax base and the skills of the local authorities. Central governments can achieve reform on a nationwide scale, even where the property tax is locally administered, by delivering standardized packages of training and technical assistance to local governments.Public Sector Management and Reform,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management

Decentralization and fiscal management in Colombia

Colombia's political geography contrasts sharply with its economy. Physical characteristics and guerilla war fragment the country geographically, yet it has a long tradition of political centrism and macroeconomic stability. Recently, with political and economic decentralization, there has been some weakening of macroeconomic performance. The authors explore institutional arrangements that have helped Colombia manage the fiscal aspects of decentralization, despite the country's political problems. Fiscal decentralization proceeded rapidly in Colombia. Education, health, and much infrastructure provision have been decentralized to the departmentos and municipios. Decentralization has led to substantial but not overwhelming problems, both in maintaining fiscal balance nationally ( as resources are transferred of subnational levels) and in preventing unsustainable deficits by the subnational governments. The problems have arisen because central government interference prevents departments from controlling their costs and because of expectations of debt bailouts. Both are legacies of the earlier pattern of management from the center, and some recent changes - especially about subnational debt - may improve matters. Colombia's traditional political process has had difficulty dealing with problems of decentralization because traditional parties are weak in internal organization and have lost de facto rule over substantial territories. The fiscal problems of subnational government have been contained, however, because subnational governments are relatively weak politically and the central government, for the time being, has been able to enforce restrictions on subnational borrowing.Urban Economics,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Public&Municipal Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,National Governance,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Urban Economics

Fiscal management in federal democracies : Argentina and Brazil

In shifting to decentralized public finances, a country's central government faces certain fiscal management problems. First, during and soon after the transition, unless it reduces pending or increases its own tax resources, the central government tends to have higher deficits as it shifts fiscal resources to sub-national governments through transfers, revenue sharing, or delegation of tax bases. Reducing spending is hard, not only because cuts are always hard, but because sub-national governments might not take on expected tasks, leaving the central government with a legal or political obligation to continue spending for certain services. Second, after decentralization, the local or state government faces popular pressure to spend more and tax less, creating the tendency to run deficits. This tendency can be a problem if sub-national governments and their creditors expect or rely on bailouts by the central government. Econometric evidence from 32 large industrial and developing countries indicates that higher sub-national spending and deficits lead to greater national deficits. The authors investigate how, and how successfully, Argentina and Brazil dealt with these problems in the 1990s. In both countries, sub-national governments account for about half of public spending and are vigorous democracies in most (especially the largest) jurisdictions. The return to democracy in the 1980s revived and strengthened long-standing federal practices while weakening macroeconomic performance, resulting in unsustainable fiscal deficits, high inflation, sometimes hyperinflation, and low or negative growth. Occasional stabilization plans failed within a few years. Then Argentina (in 1991) and Brazil (in 1994) introduced successful stabilization plans. National issues were important in preventing and then bringing about macroeconomic stabilization, but so were intergovernmental fiscal relations and the fiscal management of sub-national governments. State deficits and federal transfers were often out of control in the 1980s, contributing to national macroeconomic problems. Stabilization programs in the 1990s needed to establish control, and self-control, over sub-national spending and borrowing.National Governance,Public&Municipal Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Urban Economics,National Governance,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management

Urban property taxation : lessons from Brazil

Efforts to increase the responsiveness and accountability of local governments -- as well as fiscal constraints at the central level -- have prompted an interest in reviving the urban property tax as a major source of municipal revenue. At present, the urban property tax is the most widely used municipal tax instrument in the developing world, but typically accounts for less than half of municipal recurrent revenues. Property tax yields can be increased by either increasing tax rates or reducing losses arising from evasion and maladministration. In the case of the property tax, there is a strong argument for beginning with the latter. Efforts to increase rates alone would exaggerate the inequities arising from existing maladministration, placing the burden of the increase on those who already pay their fair share, whereas improvements in administration place the burden on those who evade. A focus on administration achieves the objectives of increasing revenue while improving fairness. Brazil's experience with urban property taxation yields several generalizable lessons on both the practice of property tax administration and the process of implementing administrative reforms. Brazilian municipalities have found solutions -- wholly or partly successful -- to the following problems confronting property taxation: (a) rapid urban growth; (b) scarcity of skills; (c) inaccessible market data; (d) inflation; (e) disputed liability; and (f) slow judicial procedures.Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Public Sector Management and Reform,Urban Governance and Management,Banks&Banking Reform

Fiscal management in federal democracies: Argentina and Brazil

In the 1980s, Argentina and Brazil faced similar problems, with subnational deficits adding to excess public deficits and high inflation. In the 1990s both countries continued with fiscal decentralization and with the struggle to bring about macroeconomic stability. At least up to 1998, Argentina had greater success, partly because the country imposed a harder budget constraint on the public sector at the national level and partly because it had stronger party control of the subnational governments and of the national legislators. For restraining local and state borrowing, getting the right incentives for subnational governments and particularly for their creditors proved more effective, in Argentina, than central government rules, in Brazil.Departamento de Economí

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase 1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age  6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score  652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc = 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N = 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701