CHAPTER 5
- Page 3, Para 3 ‘Fiscal federalism is considered…’
Line 21: ‘…Alexis de Toqueville…(1980, Vol. 1, p. 163)’
The year of publishing cited in the reference section, is different from the one stated in the manuscript. Could you please confirm which is the correct one?
Author’s reply:
There are two editions: Keep it as 1980.
- Page 4, Para 3 ‘Thus, the case for horizontal equalization…’
Line 19: ‘…or net fiscal benefits (Buchanan, 1952)’
The year of publishing cited in the reference section, is different from the one stated in the manuscript. Could you please confirm which is the correct one?
Author’s reply:
1950
- Page 5, Para 1 ‘In the actual design of the transfer system…’
Line 10: ‘…there are many non-economic including political objectives and the actual transfer system…’
The sentence seems incomplete after ‘non-economic’. Could you please elaborate on the meaning of the sentence, for better clarity?
Author’s reply:
The sentence may be revised as follows:
Finally, even if some approximations on fiscal disabilities and matching ratios made, the actual transfer system in any country would have to take into account there are many non-economic objectives including political objectives. Therefore, and the actual transfer system, differs from the ideal
- Page 5, Para 2 ‘The departures from the above normative…’
Line 22: ‘As stated by Breton (2002, p.194)…’
The year of publishing cited in the reference section, is different from the one cited in the text. Could you please confirm which is the correct one?
Author’s reply:
Line 22: It should be, “As stated by Bardhan (2002, p. 194).
Pl. add a reference:
Breton, Albert (2002), “An Introduction to decentralization failure” in Ehtisham Ahmad and Giorgio Brosio (Eds) Managing Fiscal Decentralization, Routledge, New York and London. Pp. 31.
5. Page 6, Para 4 ‘The perverse incentives…’
Line 43: ‘…”centrally planned socialist regimes.’
There are quotation marks marking the beginning of a quote from “centrally planned…’, but there are no subsequent quotation marks, which imply the end of the same. Could you please specify, where the quote ends, so that we can make the corrections accordingly?
Author’s reply:
Remove the quotation mark.
6. Page 8, Para 2 ‘Thus, planning in both centrally…’
Line 14: ‘Thus, planning in both centrally planned economies making a transition to the market and those with mixed economy framework has impacted in the nature and functioning of fiscal federalism’.
This paragraph’s opening sentence seems a little incomplete. Could you please rephrase it in a better way, for easier understanding?
Author’s reply:
The sentence may be reframed as followes:
The above discussion shows that planning in both …..
- Page 10, Para 2 ‘The impact of declining state enterprise…’
Line `7: ‘…either because of inability to face greater competition in a liberalized open environment increase their fiscal dependence’.
This sentence seems incomplete because the either/or contrast is not complete. So could you please confirm whether there is something more, that needs to be added in order to make it complete?
Author’s reply:
The sentence may be redrafted as follows:
In most transitional economies, subnational governments get significant revenues from state enterprises under their control and vanishing revenues mainly due to the inability of these enterprises to face greater competition in a liberalized open environment increase their fiscal dependence.
- Page 10, Para 4 ‘The consequences of…’
Line 26: ‘The consequence of pushing down the functions without planned economies such as India finances has been to reduce the standards of public services or raising revenues from revenue handles assigned to them without any regard to economic effects of such levies’.
It’s difficult to understand what is being said in this paragraph. Could you please rephrase it for better clarity and understanding?
Author’s reply:
The sentence may be redrafted as follows:
The consequence of pushing down the functions without adrequate devolution of finances in countries such as India has been to reduce the standards of public services or subnational governments raising revenues from undesirable revenue sources without any regard to efficiency implications.
- Page 10, Para 5 ‘An important outcome…’
Line 45: ‘…either made directly to provide many public services such as running of schools, hospitals, housing, construction of maintenance of roads and bridges’.
AND
This included, quasi–fiscal expenditure of enterprises for the provision of public services, at less than full compensation was one percent of GDP (World Bank, 2001, Wong, 1999).
Could you kindly rephrase the sentences?
Author’s reply:
The sentences may be redrafted as follows:
In all economies with a strong presence of state enterprises, these enterprises are made to provide many public services such as running of schools, hospitals, housing, construction of maintenance of roads and bridges.
This included uncompensated quasi-fiscal expenditures of enterprises on various public services (World Bank, 2001, Wong, 1999).
- Page 11, Para 1 ‘An important outcome of the public enterprise…’
Line 12: ‘…infrastructure and culture (Martinez-Vazquez, 1995)’.
Since this source is not listed in the reference section, could you please provide us with the full reference details, so that we can proceed with the same?
Author’s reply:
Line 12: ‘…..infrastructure and culture (Jorge, Martinez-Vazquez. 1995)’.
- Page 11, Para 3 ‘Meaningful fiscal decentralization…’
Line 23: ‘…up to the State level (Rao, Amar Nath and Vani, 2004)’.
This source is not mentioned in the reference section. Could you please provide us with the full details of this reference, so that it can be included there?
Author’s reply:
Rao, M. Govinda, H. K. Amar Nath and B. P. Vani, “Rural Fiscal Decentralization in Karnataka”, in Geetha Sethi (Ed) Fiscal decentralization to Local Governments, Oxford University Press for the World Bank New Delhi..
- Page 15, Para 2 ‘Planned economies through their…’
Line 9: ‘The distortions are introduced by the way the budgets are determined, the determination of administered prices, impediments to internal trade and movement of labor and capital, closed nature of the economy and commanding heights role assigned to the public sector’.
The sentence seems incomplete and difficult to understand. Could you please rephrase it for better clarity?
Author’s reply:
The sentence may be redrafted as follows:
The distortions are introduced due to the way in which the budgets are formulated, prices are determined through administered mechanisms and impediments are placed on internal trade and on the movement of commodities and factors of production.
- Breton, Albert. 1996. Competitive Governments, CambridgeUniversity Press
Could you please provide us with the location details for this reference?
Author’s reply:
New York (USA) and Cambridge (U.K).
- Courchene, T. J. 1984. ‘Avenues for Adjustment: The Transfer System and Regional Disparities’, in M. Walker (ed.), Canadian Confederation at the Crossroads: The Search for Federal – Provincial Balance, Vancouver: The Frazer Institute.
Could you please provide us with the page range for this reference?
Author’s reply:
It should be
Courchene, T. J. 1978, ‘Avenues for Adjustment: ……..’ pp. 143 – 186.
- Inman, Robert and Daniel Rubenfeld 1997. ‘The Political Economy of Federalism’, in Dennis C. Mueller (ed.), Perspectives on Public Choice: a Handbook, Cambridge, U.K.; New York: CambridgeUniversity Press.
Could you please provide us with the page range for this reference
Author’s reply:
pp. 73-105
- Jorge, Martinez-Vazquez. 1995. Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in Bulgaria, in Bird, Ebel and Wallich (eds), pp. 183-222.
Could you please provide us title of the book, publisher’s name and location details for this reference?
Author’s reply:
Decentralization of the Socialist State, World Bank, Washington DC.
- Newberry, David. 1987. “Taxation and Development”, in David Newbery and Nicholas Stern (eds.), The Theory of Taxation for Developing Countries, Oxford University Press.
Could you please provide us with the corresponding citation for this reference, in the text? Kindly provide the page range and place of publication.
Author’s reply:
Pl. drop the reference.
- Oates, W. A. 1969. ‘The Effects of Property taxes and Local Public Spending on Property Values: An Empirical Study of Tax Capitalization and Tiebout Hypothesis’, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 77 pp. 957-71.
Could you please provide us with the issue number for this reference?
Author’s reply:
No. 6
- Oates, W. A. 1977. ‘An Economist’s Perspective of Fiscal Federalism’ in Wallace E. Oates (ed.), Political economy of Fiscal federalism.
Could you please provide us with the page range, location and publisher details for this reference?
Author’s reply:
Lexington Books, Mass:Heath-Lexington, pp. 3-20.
- Reference
Prud’homme, Remy. 1995. ‘On the Dangers of Decentralization’, World Bank Research Observer, pp. 201-10.
Could you please provide us with the volume and issue number details for this reference?
Author’s reply:
Vol. 10. No. 2; pp 201-20.
- Rao, Govinda M. 2001. ‘State Finances in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. No. pp.
Could you please provide us with the volume number, issue number and page range details for this reference?
Author’s reply:
Vol. 37; No. 31. pp. 3261-3271.
- Scott, A. D. 1950. ‘A Note on Federal Grants’, Economica, Vol.17. Pp. 416-22.
Could you please provide us with the issue number for this journal reference?
Author’s reply?
No. 68
- Rao, Govinda M. 2002. ‘Dynamics of Indian Federalism’, paper presented at the Conference on Indian Economic Reforms, Center for Economic Development and Policy Reform, StanfordUniversity
Could you please provide us with the location details and the date/s on which this paper was presented?
Author’s reply:
Stanford, June 6-7. 2002.
- Tiebout, Charles E. 1956. ‘A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures’, Journal ofPolitical Economy, Vol. 64, pp. 416-24.
Could you please provide us with the issue number details for this journal reference?
Author’s reply:
No. 5
- Wong, Christine. 1999. ‘Converting Fees into Taxes: Reform of Extra-budgetary Funds and Inter-governmental Fiscal relations in China, 1999 and Beyond’, paper presented at the Association of Asian Studies Meetings, Boston, Massachusetts.
Could you please provide us with the dates on which this paper was presented?
Author’s reply:
March 11-14, 1999
- World Bank. 2000. China: Managing Public Expenditures for Better Results, Report No. 20342 –CHA.
World Bank. 2002. China: National Development and Sub-National Finance, World Bank Report No. 22951 – CHA.
Could you please confirm whether World Bank is both the author and publisher of the works that have been referred to here?
Author’s reply:
Yes; Both the author and publisher.
27. Page 10, para 3, Apart from the strategy followed by the jurisdictions, in determining the administered prices, low prices in the case of commodities that are price elastic to attract trade diversion and high prices in the case of commodities that are relatively price inelastic to earn monopoly rents from non-residents. ------Kindly confirm the sentence. Would you like to rephrase it.
Author’s reply:
The sentence may be redrafted as follows:
The subnational governments tend to adopt the strategy of charging low prices to attract diversion of trade in respect of commodities which are price elastic to expand business activities within their jurisdictions and charge high prices in respect of commodities with low price elasticity to collect more revenue from non-residents.
28. In most planned economies, the objective of “balanced regional development” pursued by the governments cause the investment pattern not according to the resource endowments in different regions but often vitiated by the distortions caused by central investments.------Kindly confirm the sentence. Would you like to make any change?
Author’s reply:
The sentence may be restructured as follows:
In most planned economies, a variety policy instruments such as, controls and prices and output, investment patterns, intergovernmental transfers and centrals government’s own spending pattern in different regions, alters the resource allocations in unintended ways.
29. Page 14, para 2, (World Bank, 1999).------Kindly provide complete reference for the citation.
Author’s reply:
Pl., substitute World Bank (1999) with Rao (2003).
In the reference list, the following may be added:
Rao,, M. Govinda (2003), “Challenge of Fiscal decentralization in Developing anhd Transitional Economies: An Asian Perspective”, in Jorge Maritnez-Vazquez and James Alm, Public Finance in Developing and Transitional Countries, (Essays in Honhour of Richard Bird), Edward ERlgar, Cheltenham ULK and Northanmpton, MA, USA. pp. 35-62.
30. Malme J. H and Joan M. Youngman (eds), 2001. The Development of Property Taxation in Economies in Transition. The World Bank.
------Please provide the place of publication.
Author’s reply:
Washington DC, USA.
31. Page 11, (World Bank 2001).------Kindly provide complete reference for the citation.
Author’s reply:
It should be World Bank, (2000).
32. The following references are not cited in the text. Kindly provide citation for these or consider deleting them.
World Bank. 2000. China: Managing Public Expenditures for Better Results, Report No. 20342 –CHA.
(See, 31 above)
Wong, christine. 2000. ‘Central-local Relations Revisited: the 1994 Tax Sharing Reform and Public Expenditure Management in China’, Paper presented at the International Conference on ‘Central-Periphery Relations in China: Integration, Disintegration or Reshaping of an Empire?’, Chinese University of Hong Kong, March 24–25, 2000
Rao, M. Govinda, Richard M. Bird, and Jennie I. Litvack. 1998. “Fiscal Decentralization and Poverty Alleviation in a Transitional Economy”, Asian Economic Journal, 12 (4): 353–78.
Jorge, Martinez-Vazquez. 1995. “Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in Bulgaria”, in Bird, Ebel and Wallich (eds) pp. 183–222.
Bird, Richard and Francois Vaillancourt (eds). 1998. Fiscal Decentralization in Developing Countries. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.
Ahmad, Ehtisham and Vito Tanzi (eds). 2002. Managing Fiscal Decentralization. London: Routledge.
Author’s reply:
Pl. keep, World Bank. 2000. China: Managing Public Expenditures for Better Results, Report No. 20342 –CHA (see 31 above)
Delete the rest.