A System of Regionalized Public Accounts For Spain Methodology and Results for 2005

Abstract

This paper develops a methodology for the construction of a System of Regionalized Public Accounts (SRPA) using a burden-benefit approach and applies this methodology to the year 2005. The SRPA provides a detailed picture of the regional distribution of the tax burden and of the benefits arising from public expenditure and can be used to make homogeneous comparisons across regions in terms of many budgetary aggregates. This new statistical tool allows a much richer analysis of the regional incidence of public sector activity than the standard approach based on the calculation of regional net fiscal balances that has been used in many previous studies.