In the new issue of Public Sector Economics, Francisco Bastida, Bernardino Benito, María-Dolores Guillamón and Ana-María Ríos in the article Tax mimicking in Spanish municipalities: expenditure spillovers, yardstick competition, or tax competition?  evaluate whether local governments make tax decisions just focusing on their economic or budgetary features or whether the tax rates of neighboring municipalities are also or mainly taken into account. Dirk-Hinnerk Fischer and Simona Ferraro in the article A proposal for a simple average-based progressive taxation system introduce a first theoretical presentation of a simple progressive taxation system. Sergii Slukhai and Tetiana Borshchenko in the article Social welfare dynamics in post-socialist countries: unveiling the secrets of success analyse the influence of various factors on social well-being in the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Ombir Singh in the article State ownership and performance of firm: evidence from India compares and analyses the performance of public and private sector firms operating in five different industries. Maja Vehovec reviews a book Structural reforms for growth and cohesion: lessons and challenges for CESEE countries and a modern Europe (editors: Ewald Nowotny, Doris Ritzberger-Gruenwald and Helene Schuberth).

Call for papers: Special Issue on the Economics and Governance for Sustainability

Louis Meuleman (Leuven University, Member of United Nations Committee of the Experts on Public Administration - CEPA, European Commission) held a lecture on the topic of Metagovernance for Sustainability - A Framework for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals on 24 April 2019 in the Institute of Public Finance.

The lecturer highlighted the governance challenges related to the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), using the concept of metagovernance (governance of governance styles). Taking into account the specificities of societal factors such as different values and traditions in different countries, successful decision makers do not stick to one governance approach; they think beyond the governance style that their organization or culture may be used to. Thus, he showed how hierarchical, network and market governance styles can be combined and how governance failure can be prevented or dealt with.