Fiscal Federalism in Mexico: Distortions and Structural Traps

The decentralization process in Mexico has shown significant progress by trying to empower local and state governments. However, the Mexican case makes clear that the transfer of greater powers to subnational governments does not necessarily means an increase in their institutional capacities. Thus,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Enrique Cabrero Mendoza
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:México
Institución:Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, A.C.
Repositorio:Redalyc-CIDE
OAI Identifier:oai:redalyc.org:50428804001
Acceso en línea:https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=50428804001
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Estudios Territoriales
local finance
Fiscal federalism
decentralization policies
intergovernmental relations
Descripción
Sumario:The decentralization process in Mexico has shown significant progress by trying to empower local and state governments. However, the Mexican case makes clear that the transfer of greater powers to subnational governments does not necessarily means an increase in their institutional capacities. Thus, due to the lack of institutional capacities at the subnational level, the prevailing arrangement of fiscal federalism in Mexico has generated vertical imbalances that result in “structural traps”. As a consequence, the current framework fails to guarantee the three basic premises that should be fulfilled by today’s intergovernmental fiscal arrangements: fiscal responsibility, compensatory duties and accountability. This article (1) explores the current state of fiscal federalism in Mexico, (2) makes a comparison with OECD countries to show how levels of government interact in both, federal and unitary regimes and (3)makes an assessment of the institutional capacities of subnational governments in Mexico.