This presentation was made by Sean DOUGHERTY, OECD, at the 13th Annual Meeting of OECD-Asian Senior Budget Officials held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 14-15 December 2017

1. The OECD’s
Fiscal Network
Sean M. Dougherty
Senior Advisor
OECD Network on Fiscal
Relations Across Levels of
Government
SBO Asia Meeting
14-15 December 2017

2. The OECD Fiscal Network
2
• Shares experiences on all aspects of fiscal federalism and
sub-national public finance, on both the revenue and
spending sides of the budget
• Annual Network meetings, as well as workshops and
expert seminars
• Unique policy analysis, database and reports
• Membership-based: most Federal OECD countries,
unitary countries that are more decentralised;
non-OECD members are welcome
• Collaborates with multiple directorates at the OECD

3. OECD countries follow various models
3Source: OECD (2018, forthcoming)

4. SNGs spending: one-quarter of total
public spending, i.e. 9% of GDP
AUT
BEL
BGR
HRV
CYP
CZE
DNK
EST
FIN
FRA
DEU
GRC
HUN
ISL
IRL
ITALVA
LTU
LUX
MLT
NLD
NOR
POL
PRT
ROU
SVNSVK
ESP SWE
CHE
GBR
ARG
BRA
CHL
COL
CRIDOM
ECU
SLV
GRM
HND
JAM
MEX
PRY
PER
ISR
JOR
PSETUR
ALB
ARM
AZE
GEO
KAZ
KGZ
MDA
MNE
RUS
SRB
UKR
AGO
BEN
BFA
CPV
COG
GHA
GIN
KEN
MWI
MLI
MUS
MAR
NGA
UGA
SEN
ZAF
TZA
TCD
TUN
ZWE
AUS
KHM
CHN
IND
IDN
JPN
KOR
MYS
MNG
NZL
PHLTHA
VNM
CAN
USA
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
SNGexpenditureas%ofpublic
expenditure
SNG expenditure as % of GDP

5. Why decentralise? To promote sub-national
government performance
5Source: OECD Fiscal Federalism (2018)
Central governments can help sub-nationals to enhance public sector productivity

6. Aligning responsibilities
• Based on a recent synthesis of reviews:
1. better align sub-central spending with own-source
revenue;
2. delineate responsibilities and functions clearly;
3. raise sub-central spending power and autonomy
and reduce the scope of earmarked grants;
4. maintain and strengthen internal markets;
5. devolve some responsibilities to private-sector
service providers;
6. strengthen intergovernmental information and co-
ordination systems.
6
Source: OECD (2018), Synthesis of
Fiscal Federalism Survey Chapters

7. 7
RECENT POLICY ANALYSIS
 Decentralisation and inequality: Do decentralised
countries grow more or less equal? And are regional
disparities larger?
 The taxation of immovable property: What is a “good”
property tax, and how can property tax reform be
successfully implemented?
 Debt monitoring and management: Should central
government monitor sub-national debt, and if so, what are
the preferred instruments?
 Fiscal constitutions: Do constitutional frameworks affect
fiscal policy? How conducive are they to long-term growth?
 Decentralization, education, and growth: Do
decentralised countries invest more and grow faster? And
do their students perform better?
 Sub-central fiscal rules: How to design sub-central fiscal
rules that foster stable and sustainable public finances and
inclusive growth?
Website: http://oe.cd/fiscalnetwork
Email: Sean.Dougherty@oecd.org

8. New Asia Roundtable on 18-19 Dec in Seoul
8
• Share knowledge of policy
issues of fiscal relations
across levels of
government with
policymakers and experts
• Comparative analysis of
fiscal federalism with
Asian and OECD countries
• Publish and share the
results of the workshop to
improve regional policies

9. 9
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