CONTEMPORARY ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 2 2007
BILIN NEYAPTI
This article extends the model of Von Hagen and Harden that analyzed the impact of fiscal discipline on budgetary outcomes. We modify the model by adding monetary discipline to interact with fiscal discipline in order to analyze the effects of both on budgetary outcomes. The model predicts that while both inflation and budget deficits are negatively associated with fiscal discipline, they may be positively associated with monetary discipline, proxied by central bank independence. This result obtains due to optimizing agents internalizing the burden of spending: inflation. Although not conclusive due to data limitations, empirical findings also support these predictions. (JEL D73, E58, H61, H72) [source]

Fiscal and monetary policy coordination in EMU

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FINANCE & ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2003
Jürgen von Hagen
First page of article [source]

Fiscal and Regulatory Competition: Theory and Evidence

PERSPEKTIVEN DER WIRTSCHAFTSPOLITIK, Issue 4 2002
Wallace E. Oates
This paper reviews first the theoretical literature and then the empirical studies of interjurisdictional competition among governments. Of central interest is the normative question of whether fiscal and regulatory competition promotes a more efficient functioning of the public sector or whether it is the source of distortions in the public and private sectors. This is a contentious issue; both the theoretical and empirical literature, while providing some rich insights into the potential impact of such competition, do not give us an unambiguous answer to the general normative question. The concluding section offers the author's thoughts on all this with a leaning towards the view that such competition is, on balance, efficiency,enhancing. [source]

State Saving Behavior: Effects of Two Fiscal and Budgetary Institutions

PUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 3 2008
YILIN HOU
This paper explores how state saving behavior is affected by two fiscal/budgetary institutions,budget stabilization funds (BSF) and balanced budget requirements (BBR). While adopted for different reasons, BSF and BBR could have significant effects on state savings behavior depending on their design features. We empirically examine the effects of BSF and BBR using a panel data set that covers three business cycles, controlling for budgetary institutions, state economy, social services, politics, and business cycles. The paper finds that adopting BSF and BBR can raise savings by 2 and 3 percentage points, respectively; however, the effects depend crucially on the devices' design. [source]

THE PRIVATE FINANCING OF NHS HOSPITALS: POLITICS, POLICY AND PRACTICE

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2009
Mark Hellowell
This article outlines and critiques the main fiscal and economic rationales for the Private Finance Initiative and examines the impact of the policy on the long-term financial viability of NHS trusts. It concludes that the PFI funding of capital investment is highly problematic. Its high costs can have a negative impact on the finances of health systems. [source]

Gresham on horseback: the monetary roots of Spanish American political fragmentation in the nineteenth century1

ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 3 2009
MARIA ALEJANDRA IRIGOIN
This article deals with the political economic consequences of the disappearance of the Spanish silver peso standard in Spanish America, the longest monetary union that ever existed. With the Napoleonic invasion of Spain in 1808, the fiscal and political structure of the empire imploded and most colonies became independent. Regional competition for revenues exacerbated budget shortfalls driven by military expenditure. Local elites established in former colonial Treasury districts started highly diverse monetary experiments to procure funds. Those in control of mint houses started minting their own coins or debased existing silver currency. Elsewhere, inconvertible paper currency was also created to meet budget deficits. As a result, the most valuable feature of the Spanish American silver peso, its quality standard, was broken and the standard that had organized the early modern international economy for more than 300 years ceased to exist altogether. In Spanish America, as diverse monies co-existed within a formerly highly integrated economic space, a widespread Gresham's law effect exacerbated the conflict among local and regional elites. This fostered the political fragmentation of colonial Spanish America into an increasing number of political and monetary sovereign entities during the nineteenth century. [source]

The Independence of the Bank Of England: an Update

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Issue 2 2000
Stephen Hall
In this article, Stephen Hall and Brian Henry reconsider the arguments for further coordination of fiscal and monetary policy in the UK. The recent inflation-unemployment performance in the UK has been good, but it appears mainly the result of beneficial developments in the world economy. Further improvement in the policy-making framework in the UK is called for. Many of the present drawbacks could be dealt with by treating fiscal policy on a par with monetary policy. There are arguments that further cooperation is not needed but these are unpersuasive. They recommend the setting up of an independent committee charged with reviewing fiscal decisions, and coordinating these with monetary decisions by the MPC. [source]

Fiscal Decentralisation and Empowerment: Evolving Concepts and Alternative Measures,

FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2008
Jameson Boex
H11; H70; H72 Abstract Decentralisation reforms are among the most common and significant public sector reforms, particularly in developing and transitional countries around the world. Despite the importance of the topic to policy practitioners and academic researchers alike and the extensive empirical research on the topic, there is consensus in the literature that the measures of decentralisation that are currently used are unsatisfactory. In response, we propose an alternative measure of fiscal decentralisation based on the notion that decentralisation is more than simply the inverse of centralisation. Following Bahl (2005), we consider fiscal decentralisation as ,the empowerment of people by the [fiscal] empowerment of their local governments'. Accordingly, we develop a measure of fiscal empowerment that allows us to quantify fiscal decentralisation as the gain in empowerment due to devolution and we analyse the proposed measures of empowerment and decentralisation for a cross-section of developing, transitional and industrialised countries. [source]

Expenditure Reform in Industrialised Countries: A Case-Study Approach,

FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 3 2007
Sebastian Hauptmeier
This study examines reforms of public expenditure in industrialised countries over the past two decades. We distinguish ambitious and timid reformers and analyse in detail reform experiences in eight case studies of ambitious reform episodes. We find that ambitious reform countries reduce spending on transfers, subsidies and public consumption. Such expenditure retrenchment is also typically part of a comprehensive reform package that includes improvements in fiscal institutions as well as structural and other macroeconomic reforms. The study finds that ambitious expenditure retrenchment and reform coincides with large improvements in fiscal and economic growth indicators. [source]

Innovative Governance and Development in the New Ireland: Social Partnership and the Integrated Approach

GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2004
J. D. House
Since the mid-1980s, the economy of the Republic of Ireland has displayed a remarkable turnaround. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown at a faster rate than any developed country in the world. The government's deficit has been cut severely and the debt-to-GDP ration sharply reduced. Average incomes have risen significantly, and the unemployment rate reduced dramatically. This article documents these changes. Its main purpose, however, is to provide a plausible explanation for the "Irish miracle." While many factors have been important,support for the Economic Union's regional development programs, a favorable tax structure, locational and language advantages for attracting multinational corporations, strong education and training programs,these factors in themselves do not explain the emergence of the "Celtic tiger." They were in place before the mid-1980s when Ireland was suffering from a fiscal, economic, and political crisis. Instead, the article argues, it was the creative and innovative response of Irish leaders in government, industry, and labor movement and community organizations to the crisis, and the subsequent institutionalization of this response in a new form of governance, that has been the catalyst for the Irish success story. Based on the thorough background research of the Economic and Social Research Council, a farsighted group of leaders developed a strategic plan in 1987 that provided a blueprint for constructive economic and social change. This was then formally instituted for wage restraint on the part of labor in return for income tax and social supposed provisions by government. Irish social Partnership is modeled to some extent on Northern European corporatism. The article reviews corporatism as an early form of innovative governance, using classical corporatism in Sweden and competitive corporatism in the Netherlands to illustrate how this approach has evolved over the years. Dutch economic success in recent years is due in part to its new form of corporatism that has helped it become globally competitive. It is argued, however, that Irish social partnership goes beyond continental corporatism in several important ways. It is more inclusive, covering a large array of social interests; it is more strategic, with a well-articulated integrated approach to social and economic development that is self-corrective and articulated in a new national agreement every three years; and it is more firmly institutionalized in both government and nongovernment agencies in the country. Social partnership and the integrated approach have become part of the culture of the new Ireland. This innovative form of governance underlies the Irish turnaround and augurs well for the future. It can also serve as a model, with appropriate modification tailor-made to each case, for other jurisdictions hoping to emulate Ireland's success. [source]

Between EU Requirements, Competitive Politics, and National Traditions: Re,creating Regions in the Accession Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2002
Martin Brusis
The article studies the impact of the European Union (EU) on the reforms of regional administration in Central and East European (CEE) accession countries. It analyzes the motives, process and outcomes of regional, or mesolevel administrative reforms in five countries,Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia,considering whether the EU has shaped these reforms to a higher degree than in relation to its incumbent member states. The article finds that the EU Commission's interest in regional self,governments with a substantial fiscal and legal autonomy has provided an additional rationale and an incentive to re,create regional self,governments. Advocates of regional self,government and an institutionalization of regions in the accession countries have referred to European trends and (perceived) EU expectations of regionalization. Thus, the Commission and the preaccession framework have become catalysts for a process in which most CEE regions have already enhanced and will further increase their political salience. However, the trajectories and outcomes of regional,level reforms can be better explained by a combination of domestic institutional legacies, policy approaches of reformers and their adversaries, and the influence of ethnic/historical regionalism. [source]

Nature, production and regulation in eighteenth-century Britain and France: the case of the leather industry*

HISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 211 2008
Giorgio Riello
Leather was, in the pre-industrial economy, a scarce material used in the production of a wide range of goods. The supply of leather was influenced by the national cattle asset and its slaughtering rate. The difficulty in increasing leather production to meet the demands of a ,consumer revolution' was the subject of theoretical debates and practical intervention. The state controlled and organized the leather market through fiscal and commercial policies. This article offers a comparative analysis of the French and the British leather markets in the eighteenth century. In France, the state assumed an organizational function in the creation of a national leather market. In Britain, by contrast, the state simply regulated an existing market. These different political interventions influenced the dynamics of development of leather production and the leather trades in the two countries. While France suffered from an endemic absence of leather, Britain was able to satisfy its increasing demand efficiently. [source]

Lessons from the Russian Meltdown: The Economics of Soft Legal Constraints

INTERNATIONAL FINANCE, Issue 3 2002
Enrico Perotti
On 17 August 1998, Russia abandoned its exchange rate regime, defaulted on its domestic public debt and declared a moratorium on all private foreign liabilities, which was equivalent to an outright default. The depth and speed of the Russian meltdown shocked the international markets, and precipitated a period of serious financial instability. Important lessons on issues of bank supervision and international stability can be learned by understanding the roots of such a crisis. The visible reason of the crisis was an unsustainable fiscal deficit coupled with massive capital flight, but what were their underlying causes? We argue that the structure of individual incentives in a context of capture of state decisions by special interests, compounded by a rouble overvaluation driven by exceptional international support, helps to explain the build,up of non,payment, theft and capital flight that led to the crisis. We offer an explicit model of rational collective non,compliance, cash stripping and rational collective non,payment which led to the fiscal and banking crisis and, ultimately, to a complete meltdown. In our view, the banking sector was already insolvent prior to the crisis, and contributed directly and indirectly to it. We conclude with a radical policy proposal for a stable banking system for Russia, appropriate for its current capacity for legal and supervisory enforcement. It is based on a segmented, narrow banking sector, concentration in commercial banking and a cautious extension of deposit insurance. [source]

Tourist shopping experiences and satisfaction

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 2 2007
Cevat Tosun
Abstract This paper examines tourists' perceived satisfaction with local shopping culture, staff service quality, product value and reliability, physical features of shops, payment methods, and other shopping and shop attributes with special reference to the region of Cappadocia, Turkey. A survey questionnaire was designed and conducted with tourists visiting the region on a guided tour. It was found that the respondents recorded different levels of satisfaction with various attributes of shops and shopping. Based on the research results, it is suggested that providing a higher level of shopping experience for tourists and increasing the contribution of shopping to the regional economy requires supporting indigenous local people via various fiscal and educational instruments to continue producing and retailing authentic handicrafts and souvenir goods. It is believed that this not only is necessary for the achievement of higher levels of tourist satisfaction and greater economic benefits for the local economy but also for achieving the ultimate goal of sustained and sustainable tourism development. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Reforming pensions: Principles, analytical errors and policy directions

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 2 2009
Nicholas Barr
Abstract This article, sets out a series of principles for pension design rooted in economic theory: pension systems have multiple objectives, analysis should consider the pension system as a whole, analysis should be framed in a second-best context, different systems share risks differently, and systems have different effects by generation and by gender. That discussion is reinforced by identification of a series of widespread analytical errors , errors that appear in World Bank work, but by no means only in World Bank work: tunnel vision, improper use of first-best analysis, improper use of steady-state analysis, incomplete analysis of implicit pension debt, incomplete analysis of the impact of funding (including excessive focus on financial flows, failure to consider how funding is generated, and improper focus on the type of asset in trust funds), and ignoring distributional effects. The second part of the article considers implications for policy: there is no single best pension design, earlier retirement does little or nothing to reduce unemployment, unsustainable pension promises need to be addressed directly, a move from pay-as-you-go towards funding in a mandatory system may or may not be welfare improving, and implementation matters , policy design that exceeds a country's capacity to implement it is bad policy design. We illustrate the ranges of designs of pension systems that fit the fiscal and institutional capacity constraints typical at different levels of economic development. The potential gains from simplicity imply that a country capable of implementing an administratively demanding plan does not necessarily gain from doing so. New Zealand has a simple pension system through choice, not constraint. [source]

Singapore's policy responses to ageing, inequality and poverty: An assessment

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 1 2008
Mukul G. Asher
Unlike other high-income Asian countries, it has relied on single-tier mandatory savings to finance retirement, housing, and to a lesser extent, healthcare. To address the low fertility rates, it has permitted the share of the non-citizen population to triple between 1990 and 2005 to nearly 30 per cent. This is subtly altering Singapore's socio-political dynamics, while assisting in sustaining growth and competitiveness. The paper argues that Singapore has the fiscal, institutional, and organizational capacities for a modern multi-tier social security system. Singapore is, however, determined to continue with current inadequate and inequitable arrangements, requiring individuals and their families to bear disproportionate risks in financing retirement, healthcare, and short-term income support. This reflects conscious policy choices arising from a Darwinist vision of society, and the need for socio-political control. [source]

Voluntary Disclosure, Earnings Quality, and Cost of Capital

JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 1 2008
JENNIFER FRANCIS
ABSTRACT We investigate the relations among voluntary disclosure, earnings quality, and cost of capital. We find that firms with good earnings quality have more expansive voluntary disclosures (as proxied by a self-constructed index of coded items found in 677 firms' annual reports and 10-K filings in fiscal 2001) than firms with poor earnings quality. In unconditional tests, we find that more voluntary disclosure is associated with a lower cost of capital. However, consistent with the complementary association between disclosure and earnings quality, we find that the disclosure effect on cost of capital is substantially reduced or disappears completely (depending on the cost of capital proxy) once we condition on earnings quality. Extensions probing alternative proxies show that our findings are robust to measures of earnings quality and cost of capital, but not to other measures of voluntary disclosure. In particular, we find opposite relations for voluntary disclosure measures based on management forecasts and conference calls, and we find no relations for a press release based measure. [source]

Continuing Medical Education, Continuing Professional Development, and Knowledge Translation: Improving Care of Older Patients by Practicing Physicians

JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 10 2006
David C. Thomas MD
Many community-based internists and family physicians lack familiarity with geriatrics knowledge and best practices, but they face overwhelming fiscal and time barriers to expanding their skills and improving their behavior in the care of older people. Traditional lecture-and-slide-show continuing medical education (CME) programs have been shown to be relatively ineffective in changing this target group's practice. The challenge for geriatrics educators, then, is to devise CME programs that are highly accessible to practicing physicians, that will have an immediate and significant effect on practitioners' behavior, and that are financially viable. Studies of CME have shown that the most effective programs for knowledge translation in these circumstances involve what is known as active-mode learning, which relies on interactive, targeted, and multifaceted techniques. A systematic literature review, supplemented by structured interviews, was performed to inventory active-mode learning techniques for geriatrics knowledge and skills in the United States. Thirteen published articles met the criteria, and leaders of 28 active-mode CME programs were interviewed. This systematic review indicates that there is a substantial experience in geriatrics training for community-based physicians, much of which is unpublished and incompletely evaluated. It appears that the most effective methods to change behaviors involved multiple educational efforts such as written materials or toolkits combined with feedback and strong communication channels between instructors and learners. [source]

Managing cash if hyperinflation hits

JOURNAL OF CORPORATE ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 1 2009
Fran Wolf
In an effort to prevent further widespread economic collapse, the U.S. government began an ultra-aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus. Officials have pumped trillions of dollars into the financial sector, creating a skyrocketing national debt. Many fear the result will be runaway inflation, with the cost of goods and services soaring out of control If this happens, how can companies manage cash to compensate? © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Rationality, Ethnicity And Institutions: A Survey Of Issues And Results

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 1 2005
Andreas P. Kyriacou
Abstract., This paper focuses on the relationship between institutions and ethnocentrism as discussed in the rational choice literature. The institutional environment can influence both the formation and the expression of ethnic tastes by rational individuals. Ethnocentrism is likely to be mitigated by, on the one hand, a private sector characterized by a wide and competitive market with effective property right and antitrust law enforcement provided by non-ethnic institutions and, on the other hand, a public sector which is characterized by institutional restrictions on the differential fiscal or regulatory treatment on the basis of ethnicity, a redistributive system based on non-ethnic criteria and finally, the possibility for decentralized collective decision making. These insights may be of particular utility when designing the institutions of potentially divided multi-ethnic states. [source]

The Built-in Flexibility of Income and Consumption Taxes

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 4 2002
John Creedy
This paper reviews, and synthesises within a uniform framework, a number of analytical results on the built-in flexibility of taxation. Established results for income taxes are reviewed and integrated with recent results for consumption taxes. These help to provide a better understanding of the determinants of the revenue responsiveness properties of different taxes. They also provide convenient expressions for the calculation of tax revenue elasticities in practice. It is shown that the magnitude of revenue elasticities can be expected to differ substantially for alternative taxes, for different forms of the same tax, and for the same tax over time as incomes change relative to tax thresholds and as consumption patterns change. These results are especially relevant for the many industrialised countries which have undertaken major fiscal reforms in recent years with, often unintended, consequences for revenue elasticities. [source]

Political Macroeconomics: A Survey of Recent Developments

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 5 2000
Manfred Gärtner
The paper surveys political macroeconomics, covering its development from Rogoff's conservative central banker to the most recent discussions of monetary policy and institutional design. Topics include the inflation-stabilization trade-off, central bank independence with escape clauses and overruling with costs, inflation targets, performance contracts for monetary authorities, and the consequences of output persistence for these issues. Further topics are the political business cycle when output is persistent, the political macroeconomics of fiscal policy, the government spending bias, and the game-theoretic interaction between fiscal and monetary policy. All work is discussed within a coherent analytical framework. [source]

Buying peace or fuelling war: the role of corruption in armed conflicts

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2003
Philippe Le Billon
Although corruption may have a corrosive effect on economies and rule-based institutions, it also forms part of the fabric of social and political relationships. This endogenous character means that conflict may be engendered more by changes in the pattern of corruption than by the existence of corruption itself. Such changes, frequently associated with domestic or external shocks, can lead to armed conflict as increasingly violent forms of competitive corruption between factions ,fuel war' by rewarding belligerents. Controversially, ,buying-off' belligerents can facilitate a transition to peace; but ,sticks' such as economic sanctions, rather than ,carrots', have dominated international conflict resolution instruments. While ,buying peace' can present a short-term solution, the key challenge for peace-building initiatives and fiscal reforms is to shift individual incentives and rewards away from the competition for immediate corrupt gains. This may be facilitated by placing public revenues under international supervision during peace processes. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Developing a sustainability ethic in leaders

JOURNAL OF LEADERSHIP STUDIES, Issue 2 2009
Anthony Middlebrooks
The triple bottom line of fiscal, social, and environmental success considerably alters how organizations (and stakeholders) measure sustainable success. More important, however, is the conceptual shift required to understand and successfully lead organizations within this increasingly accepted paradigm. This article uses a mixed-methods approach to explore the conceptual development of a sustainability ethic in aspiring leaders. More specifically, the authors report research examining the curriculum and pedagogy of a leadership education effort, in this case a college-level course, aimed at effecting change in both individual aspiring leaders and their immediate community. The article describes the philosophical and research base for the curriculum and specific activities with their pedagogical approach. Results show evidence of increased awareness, importance, and commitment to sustainability as well as changes in how students conceptualize sustainability leadership. Findings offer insights for further developing leadership education for sustainability. [source]

A POST-KEYNESIAN AMENDMENT TO THE NEW CONSENSUS ON MONETARY POLICY

METROECONOMICA, Issue 2 2006
Article first published online: 24 APR 200, Marc Lavoie
ABSTRACT A common view is now pervasive in policy research at universities and central banks, which one could call the New Keynesian consensus, based on an endogenous money supply. This new consensus reproduces received wisdom: in the long run, expansionary fiscal policy leads to higher inflation rates and real interest rates, while more restrictive monetary policy only leads to lower inflation rates. The paper provides a simple four-quadrant apparatus to represent the above, and it shows that simple modifications to the new consensus model are enough to radically modify received doctrine as to the likely effects of fiscal and monetary policies. [source]

Continuity planning for nonprofits

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 1 2003
Nancy Meyer-Emerick
Many nonprofits assist in emergency response and disaster relief to alleviate human suffering. In order to enhance those efforts and the maintenance of routine nonprofit operations, this article introduces the concept of continuity planning. Continuity planning does not focus on specific risks, such as floods or hurricanes, but on the maintenance of critical operational processes despite natural, anthropogenic, or technological interruptions. Continuity planning has yet to be widely applied within the nonprofit sector, primarily due to a lack of fiscal or personnel resources. This article explores several continuity-planning options for nonprofits and provides a brief explanation of the process. [source]

2.,A New Framework for Macroeconomics

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
Achieving Full Employment by Increasing Capital Turnover
Most forms of macroeconomics today, whether Keynesian or monetarist, presuppose that problems of economic instability can be treated as errors in financial management. Neither fiscal nor monetary policy recognizes the existence of systemic faults in the real economy that result in overinvestment in durable capital that turns over slowly, in contrast to forms of capital that interact more frequently with land and labor. Only by removing serious distortions in microeconomic relations can macroeconomic problems be resolved. The current global economic crisis exemplifies the limitations of policies that ignore distortions in the rate of turnover of investment capital. [source]

Fiscal and Regulatory Competition: Theory and Evidence

Decentralisation in Africa: goals, dimensions, myths and challenges

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2003
Paul Smoke
Decentralisation is a complex and often somewhat elusive phenomenon. Many countries around the world have been attempting,for several reasons and with varying degrees of intention and success,to create or strengthen sub-national governments in recent years. Africa is no exception to either the decentralisation trend or the reality of its complexity and diversity. Drawing selectively on the large academic and practitioner literature on decentralisation and the articles in this volume, this article briefly outlines a number of typical prominent goals of decentralisation. It then reviews some key dimensions of decentralisation,fiscal, institutional and political. These are too frequently treated separately by policy analysts and policy makers although they are inherently linked. Next, a few popular myths and misconceptions about decentralisation are explored. Finally, a number of common outstanding challenges for improving decentralisation and local government reform efforts in Africa are considered. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Revenue authorities: are they the right vehicle for improved tax administration?

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2001
Nick Devas
It is now well recognised that reforms to tax administration are as important as tax policy changes for overall fiscal reform. One institutional model of tax administration, which has been quite widely adopted in Africa in recent years, is that of the semi-independent Revenue Authority. This approach is based on the executive agency model, widely adopted in the UK and elsewhere, as a way of improving performance of certain governmental functions. This article looks at the arguments for and against the Revenue Authority model, and examines a number of practical issues in the design of such an agency. It draws on the recent experience of Revenue Authorities in a number of countries. It concludes that the Revenue Authority model can offer an appropriate institutional framework for reforming tax administration, particular where low pay rates and rigid civil service systems inhibit effective management. However, Revenue Authorities do not solve all problems, and can only be expected to deliver results if they form part of a wider reform. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]