This is a summary of a June 23-24, 1995 conference on THE POLITICS AND ECONOMICS OF FISCAL REGIMES IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION. The conference, organized by Dr Kanishka Jayasuriya, Dept of Government and Public Administration, University of Sydney, took place under the auspices of the FEDERALISM RESEARCH CENTRE Australian National University, Canberra.

While only one of the papers focused on Japan per se, examining institutional obstacles in the way of fiscal decentralization, many of the themes brought forward in the others were directly relevant to Japan's recent fiscal developments. These themes include the politics of instituting VATs, fiscal decentralization, and pressures to reduce the taxation of business income. Of further interest is the growing recognition that there are "competing capitalisms" (The Economist, June 24, 1995) in Asia, especially the Northeast Asian model of Japan and South Korea and the Southeast Asian model of Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Several of the papers dealt with these latter countries, highlighting the role of budgetary pressures and increased economic competition in driving a wave of major tax reforms in the entire region.

Moreover, other papers examined the experiences in China, Vietnam, and Pakistan, noting in particular the institutional impediments that hinder the extension of fiscal and economic reforms already undertaken. In the Chinese case, the most pressing need was seen to be that of breaking through the structure of incentives that stems from as yet inadequate enterprise reform. Further enterprise reform is in turn dependent on a speedy development of fiscal and financial institutions that can give the central state the capacity to cushion the shocks attendant on transformation to a market economy.

The titles of the papers and the names and affiliations of the authors are given below. Note that Professor Mukul's is an excellent overview of the public finance issues evident in Southeast Asian tax reforms. Professor Steinmo's work, in turn, highlight the changed structure of incentives that shifts in the global economy have created for tax policymakers. Steinmo's paper offers empirical evidence that the 1980s have brought a new era in which countries that impose heavy tax burdens on their economies impair their economic performance, a correlation that did not hold in the earlier decades of the postwar era.

Note also that most of the authors are available via e-mail.

THE POLITICS AND ECONOMICS OF TAX REFORM

"Recent Tax Policy Reform in Southeast Asia" Prof. Mukul Asher
Dept. of Economics, National University of Singapore

"Why Tax Reform? Understanding Tax Reform in its Political and Economic Context"
Prof Sven Steinmo
Dept of Political Science, University of Colorado

"Trench Warfare on the Tax Fields: Bureaucratic Politics and Fiscal Decentralization in Japan"
Mr Andrew De Wit
Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo

FISCAL REGIMES, REFORM AND CHANGE

"Deepening and Widening the Reform: From Enterprise Reform to Macroeconomic Stability" Prof Xu Yi Chong
Dept. of Political Science, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia

"Fiscal Reform and Adjustment in Vietnam" Prof Tom Nguyen
Dept of Economics, Griffith University, Queensland

"The Politics of Fiscal Policy in Indonesia" Prof. Andrew MacIntyre
Graduate School of International Studies, University of California, San Diego

"Indonesia's Fiscal Challenges in the 1990s" Mr Paulus Usmanto Njo
Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University, Western Australia

"Recent Fiscal Policy Reform in Malaysia: Departing from Conventional Wisdom?"
Prof. Suresh Narayanan
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang

"Fiscal Reform in Thailand"
Prof Medhi Krongkaew
Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University, Bangkok

"Fiscal Adjustment through Indirect Tax Reform in Pakistan" Mr Muhammad Khan
National Centre for Development Studies, Australian National University, Canberra
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Opening address:
Prof. Brian Galligan,
Dept of Political Science, University of Melbourne

Panel Chairs:
Dr Kanishka Jayasuriya
Dept of Government and Public Administration, University of Sydney Prof. Mukul Asher
Dept. of Economics, National University of Singapore Dr Hayden Lesbirel
Japan Research Centre, Research School of Social Science, ANU, Canberra
Prof. Govinda Rao
Centre for South Asia, Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU, Canberra
Dr John Uhr,
Director, Federalism Research Centre,
Research School of Social Sciences, ANU, Canberra

Special thanks to:
Ms Linda Gosnell, Federalism Research Centre Coombs Building Canberra ACT 0200,
Australia Phone: 61 (06) 249 2189; Facsimile 61 (06) 249 0125 E-mail:
fedcent[atx]coombs.anu.edu.au
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