Fiscal decentralization in pandemic and post-pandemic times

Abstract

In 2020, many countries, including Russia, faced a unique situation in which subnational authorities were forced to take on new powers to combat the pandemic and its consequences. At the same time, fiscal decentralization, which can be characterized by indicators of decentralization of income, expenditures or as tax decentralization, has decreased. The share of intergovernmental transfers in the revenues of regional budgets has increased. Before that, attempts to increase the role of the regional level in the country’s budget system were made in Russia, but they usually ended in failure. The article shows that the multidirectional trends of the 2020 crisis determined the new state of regional budgets and their dependence on the federal center. At the same time, it is transfers from the federal budget that have become the leading factor in resilience to shocks in regional budgets.