The impact of NAFTA and options for tax reform in Mexico

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had a profound impact on Mexico's economy and institutions. Clearly, no consideration of tax reform can ignore its role. The thinking about tax reform in Mexico requires evaluating NAFTA's effect on Mexico's economy, including its tax structure, and the effects of its tax system on trade and capital flows between Mexico and its NAFTA partners, the United States and Canada. The authors review the evidence on NAFTA's economic effects, focusing on the changes in foreign trade and foreign direct investment flows in Mexico and the effects of these changes on Mexico's tax base and ability to raise tax revenues. Using marginal effective tax rate analysis, the authors also compare Mexico's tax system with those of Canada and the United States in terms of the effect on foreign direct investment. The authors draw two main conclusions from their analysis. First, by fueling Mexico's exports and foreign direct investment inflows, NAFTA has altered the country's economic structure and hence the industrial distribution of the tax base. This transformation calls for adapting the tax structure to an economy oriented toward services and manufacturing exports. And second, Mexico's membership in NAFTA provides no significant reasons for fundamental change in its tax structure. The new wave of tax reform should concentrate on raising revenues, simplifying the tax structure, and increasing the efficiency and overall equity of the tax system.Public Sector Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Agricultural Research,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT

Sequencing fiscal decentralization

While there is extensive knowledge about how to design fiscal decentralization policies, considerably less is understood about how a decentralization program should be sequenced and implemented. Countries embarking on decentralization often struggle with decisions about the essential components of decentralization, including the order of an introduction of decentralization policies, the number of years necessary to bring a full program on line, and the components of the transition strategy. The authors argue that the sequencing of decentralization policies is an important determinant of its success. The consequences of a poorly sequenced decentralization program can range from minor delays and complications to ineffectiveness and subsequent failing support of decentralization efforts, macroeconomic instability, and fundamental failure in public sector delivery. At a minimum, the strategy of"making it up as we go"will not lead to the same structure of decentralization as will a planned strategy. The paper raises two questions: First, is there an optimal sequencing for decentralization policies and implementation? The answer is that there is, and that following these sequencing rules can reduce the costs and risks of implementing fiscal decentralization. Second, to what extent do countries follow these optimal sequencing rules? The answer is, in general, they do not. The gap between theory and practice is a result of the complexity of sequencing design, which discourages fiscal planners from implementing the full process. In addition, sequencing requires a sustained discipline and vision for its implementation, as well as overcoming pressures from political actors, especially in developing countries.Decentralization,Subnational Regional Economics,Economic Theory&Research,Teaching and Learning,Regional Rural Development

The Evolution of Tax Morale in Modern Spain

This paper studies the evolution of tax morale in Spain in the post-Franco era. In contrast to the previous tax compliance literature, the current paper investigates tax morale as the dependent variable and attempts to answer what actually shapes tax morale. The analysis uses survey data from two sources: the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey, allowing us to observe tax morale in Spain for the years 1981, 1990, 1995, and 1999/2000. The study of the evolution of tax morale in Spain over nearly a 20-year span is particularly interesting because the political and fiscal system evolved very rapidly during that period.Spain, Tax morale, Tax compliance, Constitutional and political changes, fiscal system, endogenous preferences.

Fiscal Decentralization in Asia: Challenges and Opportunities

This publication discusses the decentralization issues faced by countries of Asia and the Pacific. It includes practical suggestions on how to proceed in this area to achieve economic growth, macroeconomic stability, poverty and income distribution, services delivery improvements, and political accountability. This note elaborates on adequacy of local revenues and autonomy, expenditure management and clear service delivery mandates, horizontal imbalances and limited use of incentives in intergovernmental transfers, financing needs and local government borrowing, and local management capacities as the major challenges in a decentralized fiscal architecture. The recommendations to address the above challenges also note the long- term nature of these reforms

The Impact of Fiscal Decentralization: Issues in Theory and Challenges in Practice

This publication analyzes the impact of fiscal decentralization and the resultant issues and challenges that countries face in practice. It traces the evolution of fiscal decentralization as a significant and consequential global reform that has made subnational governments\u27 key public sector actors in a majority of countries. This note touches upon its various aspects: incidence and presence in the world; foundation in economics; impact of a list of outcomes, including economic growth, macroeconomic stability, poverty and income distribution, and service delivery and political accountability. It confirms the positive overall impact of decentralized systems, especially when they are well designed and implemented with examples from around the world, including those from Asia and the Pacific

Successful Tax Reforms in the Recent International Experience: Lessons in Political Economy and the Nuts and Bolts of Increasing Country Tax Revenue Effort

The main objective of this paper is to extract practical lessons on increasing tax revenue effort that are relevant to developing countries. Specifically, it focuses on insights from two dimensions: the political economy requirements to generate public support for reform and the technical factors (“nuts and bolts”) of substantially increasing tax revenue effort. General topics covered include the political economy preconditions that facilitate tax reform, how and by whom tax reform should be implemented, the timing of reform efforts, determinants of current tax effort, tax policy choice options, tax administration options, and the enhancement of tax morale and compliance norms. The paper also profiles successful examples of recent tax reforms from 29 countries worldwide. It concludes with lessons from both the literature and these countries’ experiences, empowering reform-minded politicians and administrators to shape their own jurisdictions’ strategies for increasing tax revenue effort

Philippines: Designing a Local Government Enhancement Fund

The main transfer instrument from the central government to local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines, the internal revenue allotment, has been criticized for: its inability to equalize sufficiently, especially regarding the poorer municipalities and provinces, and its funds not having been spent efficiently. For some time, LGUs have petitioned the Government of the Philippines to expand the funding of the IRA. However, there appears to be ample consensus that any additional funding needs to be distributed in a manner that addresses the design flaws of the IRA. In this paper, options for the design of a possible new transfer, the Fiscal Equity and Expenditure Performance Fund, separate from the IRA, are outlined. Such design faces four major challenges: (i) how to define the origin and computation of the additional funding, (ii) how to divide the additional funding among the different groups of LGUs (provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays), (iii) what formula to use for the distribution of the additional funds for qualifying LGUs in each particular group of LGUs, and (iv) how to ensure that LGUs will use the additional funds to improve their service delivery performance. The transfer mechanism suggested as a result offers a bridge toward the eventual review and reform of the IRA