Call for Papers: Central and Local Government Relations: Fiscal Sustainability

Conference on Central and Local Government Relations: Fiscal Sustainability
Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo, Japan and Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, PRC
24-25 October 2015

Sustainable and inclusive growth requires continued public investment in infrastructure, education, health and social services. These responsibilities, especially with regard to infrastructure investment, need to be devolved increasingly to the regional or local government. However, growth of revenue and sources of financing for local governments has not necessarily kept pace, forcing some of them to rely on unorthodox measures such as shadow banking, or else cutting spending below needed levels. Additional sources of revenues, including new local taxes, transfers and local bond issuance, need to be considered. Even if adequate funding is available, there need to be safeguards to ensure that debt levels are sustainable.

We are looking for original/unpublished papers on any aspect of “Central and Local Government Relations: Fiscal Sustainability”, which relate to, although not limited to, the following topics:

• Alternative models of the relationship between central and local governments, including a discussion of their strengths and weaknesses, drawing implications for Asian economies.
• Identification and research-based assessment of mechanisms for ensuring fiscal stability and sustainability of central and local governments, including their strengths and weaknesses, with a focus on their appropriateness and effectiveness for Asian economies.
• Case studies of experiences and reform measures related to strengthening local government finance and the monitoring thereof.
• Analyses of related issues, such as efficiency of alternative transfer schemes, performance of public-private partnership (PPP) financing of infrastructure, and those related to local government bond issuance.
• Implications of expanded fiscal capacity for infrastructure investment and other public spending.

ADBI will meet the travel and accommodation costs of one author per paper. Accepted papers will be considered for publication as ADBI Working Papers and inclusion in a special issue of an SSCI journal and/or in a book volume.

Important dates:

• Deadline for submission of Abstracts/Draft Papers: 30 September 2015
• Deadline for submission of Complete Paper: 31 October 2015
• Workshop date: 24-25 October 2015

Abstracts/draft papers should be submitted to: Peter Morgan, Senior Consultant for Research, [email protected]. Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo, Japan. www.adbi.org