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Fiscal federalism network

2021 Annual meeting of the OECD network on fiscal relations

 

 

 

page image for the annual Fiscal Federal meeting

  17th Annual Meeting of the
  OECD Network on Fiscal Relations across Levels of Government
  Discussion of the COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery
  22-23 November 2021 – Virtual Meeting
 

 
ITEM I Introduction
Opening Junghun Kim, Chair of the Fiscal Network
   
Introductory Remarks Introduction by Head of Network Secretariat, Sean Dougherty
Presentation Intergovernmental relations and the COVID-19 crisis: early lessons, Sean Dougherty
   
FIRST ROUND UPDATED CRISIS RESPONSE
ITEM II

The COVID-19 crisis has had a profound impact on most countries’ economies and finances. Newly updated data shows fiscal out-turns in 2020/21 for subnationals have been much better than expected a year ago, and far better than during the 2009 financial crisis. Nevertheless, considerable variation exists across jurisdictions.

  • How do you assess your own country’s on-going response during the crisis?
  • Are the latest fiscal out-turns of subnational governments surprising?
  • Were central governments overly generous in their fiscal support, and will subsequent adjustments be necessary? How soon can we return to “normal”?
  • How have different responses across regions affected policy decisions?
Background document Fiscal Federalism 2022 (OECD, 2021) 
Presentation

David Rowe (Deputy Assistant Director, Office of Management and Budget, White House, United States)  Country response
Presentation The OECD regional recovery platform
   
SECOND ROUND (part a) HOUSING POLICIES AND FISCAL TOOLS
ITEM III
 How to boost the supply of affordable housing with fiscal tools?
  Rising housing prices in many parts of the OECD have posed challenges for policymakers, with supply hindered by a range of policies. The Network has assembled new evidence suggesting that excessive spending decentralisation may favour incumbents and deter increases in housing supply, while increasing local tax autonomy appears to promote it, increasing the price elasticity of housing supply.
Presentation John Muellbauer, (Professor, Nuffield College, Oxford University) Housing Policy and Fiscal Tools
Background document Brick-by-Brick: Building Better Housing Policies (OECD, 2021)
Forthcoming “Housing supply responsiveness across levels of government: Novel evidence on tax and spending autonomy” (OECD Fiscal Network document, forthcoming)
   
SECOND ROUND (part b) PROPERTY TAXATION GOOD PRACTICES
ITEM IV Which property taxes are good policy and politically feasible?
 

The forthcoming report looks at crucial elements of reforms to growth-friendly recurrent taxes on immovable property. Tax design practices in place in OECD and partner countries are compared and analysed through the lenses of economic theory and empirical analysis. Challenges and practices related to tax administration are explored, and the main political and administrative hurdles in approving and implementing property tax reforms are discussed for the case of China.

The discussion started with the case of China, and open with a general discussion of OECD countries’ experiences.
Presentation Yu Jiantuo (Deputy Secretary General, China Development Research Foundation) The Latest Progress of China’s Property Tax Reform
 

Markku Mölläri (Ministerial Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Finland)
Background document Making Property Tax Reform Happen in China: A Review of Property Tax Design and Reform Experiences in OECD Countries (OECD, 2021)
   
THIRD ROUND FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY AND HEALTHCARE
ITEM V Will health spending and revenues be sustainable of the long-term?
  Even before COVID-19, many OECD countries expected that the financing of their health systems would be put under severe pressure over the decades to come. The pandemic has made this outlook even more complex. If high quality health services are to be sustained and improved, they need to be better prepared for the future.

To obtain an order of magnitude of the long-term financial sustainability of health systems, this set of papers:

  1. Projects government revenues to 2040 in light of shifting demographics, across levels of government;
  2. Projects public health spending to 2040, as well as the financing gaps, in light of potential health shocks.
Presentation Bill Robson (President, C.D. Howe Institute, Canada) Fiscal sustainability and healthcare
Presentation Matt Crooke (Assistant Secretary, Commonwealth State Relations, Australian Treasury) Will health spending and revenues be sustainable in the long-term?
Forthcoming Ageing and the long-run sustainability of health spending and revenues: An analysis across levels of government” (OECD Fiscal Federalism working paper, forthcoming)
Background document Ageing and Fiscal Challenges across Levels of Government (OECD, 2020)
   
FINAL ROUND PROGRAMME OF WORK DISCUSSION (FOR MEMBERS ONLY)
ITEM VI What the Network should focus on in the coming period?
  Following the COVID-19 crisis, governments are re-assessing priorities and seeking sustainable fiscal paths and strengthening of intergovernmental fiscal frameworks.

How can the Network best support this process?
Presentation

Sean Dougherty (Head of Fiscal Network Secretariat): Fiscal Network Members 
   

 

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