Significance and Determination of Fees for Municipal Finance

40 Pages Posted: 29 Dec 2004

See all articles by Chang Woon Nam

Chang Woon Nam

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); Ifo Institute, Germany; University of Applied Management (UAM)

Anita Kaltschuetz

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute

Peter Friedrich

University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich

Date Written: December 2004

Abstract

The idea of fiscal decentralisation has become increasingly fashionable world-wide. But every country has unique features of the intergovernmental fiscal system. In general municipal expenditures are rapidly growing in European countries. On the other hand local tax increases are not easily enforceable at present, whereas the local fiscal autonomy is unlikely to be guaranteed as long as municipalities are strongly dependent on down-flow grants. In such a fiscal-stress situation an improvement of local fiscal capacity can be achieved from the increase of fees. Four European countries were chosen to survey the recent development of municipal finance: Britain, Germany, Poland and Switzerland. This paper firstly identifies and highlights the similarities and differences in municipal finance in an international context. Secondly it theoretically examines the possibility of enhancing fiscal autonomy of local governments through determining optimal fee level which leads to an increase of revenues from this revenue item.

Keywords: fiscal decentralisation, local expenditures and taxes, fees, shared taxes, intergovernmental transfers, municipal borrowings, Poland, Britain, Switzerland, Germany

JEL Classification: H2, H4, H6, H7, H8

Suggested Citation

Nam, Chang Woon and Kaltschuetz, Anita and Friedrich, Peter, Significance and Determination of Fees for Municipal Finance (December 2004). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=641286 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.641286

Chang Woon Nam (Contact Author)

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.CESifo.de

Ifo Institute, Germany

Munich
Germany

University of Applied Management (UAM) ( email )

Am Bahnhof 2
Erding, 85435
Germany

Anita Kaltschuetz

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute ( email )

Munich
Germany

Peter Friedrich

University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich ( email )

Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39
Neubiberg
Munich, 85579
Germany

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