Inquiring into the fiscal constitution and the regional economic geography of Colombia, this dissertation carries out an exploration of the linkages running from the fundamental fiscal rules of the countrys multilevel system of government to the disparities in economic development among its regions, or, more precisely, among the jurisdictions of the intermediate level of government. With a comparative focus and with an eye to identifying factors that accentuate or moderate regional economic disparities in Colombia, it also offers an analysis of selected aspects of the fiscal constitutions of Canada and Spain, where, akin to the Colombian case, a less uneven regional economic development is a constitutionally declared governmental goal. Three dimensions of regional economic development are considered, namely, education, health, and income.
Similarities and differences in the assignment of functions of government and the design of taxes, intergovernmental transfers and the rules of public indebtedness between cases belonging to the same legal tradition (Colombia and Spain for the civil law tradition) and to different legal traditions (e.g., Colombia visàvis Canada, where the latter to a good extent fits in the common law tradition) are singled out and illustrated, and so are relevant quantitative patterns of the multilevel government finances and the outcomes in the three dimensions of development under study, using longitudinal and cross-section data for within and between country analysis. A sample of policy makers affiliated with the Colombian national and subnational levels of government, interviewed for the study, provide insights into the workings of intergovernmental relations, especially regarding the pros and cons of political and fiscal decentralization, as designed and implemented in Colombia, for regional and local development. The dissertation discusses and exemplifies some ways of assessing the adaptability and robustness of the Colombian fiscal constitution and of harnessing the fiscal state, through the legal system, to deal with regional economic disparities, drawing from the international comparative exercise and from a variety of theoretical approaches, including the economic analysis of law and the theories of public finance and public policy design.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-05262009-214107 |
| Date | 30 June 2009 |
| Creators | Rodriguez, Jorge Armando |
| Contributors | Louise Comfort, George Reid Andrews, Lisa S. Nelson, David Y. Miller |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-05262009-214107/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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