INFORMATION ON THE IEF

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (Instituto de Estudios Fiscales, IEF) is a research and training centre of the Spanish Public Finance, established in 1960. In 1993 its traditional focus on analysis and research was extended with the inclusion of the corporate training centre of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the School of Public Finance.

The IEF headquarters are located in Madrid and it has regional offices in Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and La Coruña.

In 1997, according to Royal Decree 1154/1997 which established the IEF organisational structure and specified its functions, a Council of advisors was established, in charge of advising and assessing its performance. A specific Commission advising on Tax codification was also established.

Following the enactment of Act 14/2000 on Fiscal, Administrative and Social Measures, the IEF became a separate governmental body attached to the Ministry of Economy and Finance through the State Secretariat for Finance and Budgets. Since then, its organisational structure has been developed by Royal Decree 63/2001 of January 26th which established the present regulations (actual Estatuto) for the IEF and determined its objectives. 

These OBJECTIVES are as follows:

- Research, studies and advice regarding subjects dealing with public revenue and expenditure and their effects on economic and social systems; as well as analysis and exploitation of tax statistics.

- Assistance and co-operation with governmental bodies in charge of announcing public competitive examinations for entry into civil service in the Ministries of Finance and Economy. The functions of these civil servants shall consist of administrating and managing public finance (the Treasury in the United Kingdom).

- Training of civil servants and other governmental employees in specific subjects dealing with public finance and in other professional activities entrusted to the IEF.

- Development of co-ordination and co-operation relations with other centres, institutions, Institutes for Public Administration, Universities, Institutions, organisations and other national and international Financial Administrations, providing study and research on tax systems and public expenditure or training and advanced courses to staff with administrative responsibility on these issues.

- Promotion of the writing and dissemination of official publications related to the specific activities of the Institute.

Its institutional role consists in promoting and determining reflection and research groups, from the Institute or outside which shall be responsive to the needs of Public Finance (the Treasury) and society. It must also develop high quality training processes aimed to comply with policies and objectives of the Ministriy of Economy and Finance.

Thus, the IEF is an obligatory point of reference for researchers, scholars and trainers within the Public Finance area. Many major Spanish economic studies have been published in the IEF collections. In this way the IEF accomplishes its role as a disseminator of economic and historical culture.

TRAINING: The School of Public Finance

The Institute has taken on a training role through the School of Public Finance which has inherited a prestigious training tradition. It was founded in 1985 when it took over the functions of the former Official Customs and Tax Inspection Schools.

The school provides training to senior and medium level professionals of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. It makes up an integral, special and interdependent training centre.

According to the rules established by Royal Decree 63/2001 of January 26th, the School is entrusted with the following functions:

- To help and co-operate with governmental bodies in charge of the recruitment process of future civil servants of the Ministry of Economy and Finance who shall be responsible for management and administration as regards public finance.

- To develop permanent training of civil servants in specific areas of public finance, and design special short- and medium-term training programmes for this purpose.

- To carry out activities and courses designed to disseminate the knowledge of the different tax systems and public expenditure and, the techniques of Finance Administration. This task must be implemented in co-operation with other centres, institutes, Schools of Public Administration, universities, institutions, bodies and other Finance Administrations, both national and foreign.

- To promote and publish handbooks and collections of texts which may be useful in training.

- To issue diplomas, certificates or documents demonstrating studies which have been followed and knowledge acquired.

- To implement training activities entrusted to the School by the Ministry of Finance and other ministries that may contribute to fulfilment of its objectives.

These functions are two-fold:

Specific Training of Civil Servants:

Institutional Training in co-operation with other Spanish and foreign bodies and centres, of civil servants and other Government employees.

Specific Training of Civil Servants is carried out by means of the following programmes and activities:

- Training for entry into the civil service. Its purpose is to provide the technical knowledge needed for a newly incorporated civil servant to accomplish his task in an optimal way and in the shortest period of time. Courses for entry in the senior civil service (Tax Inspectors, Insurance Inspectors, Administrators and Auditors appointed by the Government) as well as those followed before entry at a medium level of the civil service devoted to management of Public Finance in its different branches are some of the most important training products offered by the School.

- Training with a view to improving knowledge (Formación para el perfeccionamiento). The plans which make it up are aimed to meet the needs of senior management centres of the Ministry of Economy and Finance as regards updating knowledge of their civil servants or the needs revealed by them . For this reason, these plans are designed in co-operation with these centres: State Tax Agency, State General Administration, Deputy Secretariat, Directorate General of Insurance, Directorate General of the Catastre and other Government Centres.

Training with a view to perfecting knowledge is a response to internal and external changes in the organisation. It ensures acquisition of knowledge enabling efficacy and quality of the public service and provides knowledge and skill needed for improving competence of civil servants. It is made up of the following plans: permanent training, training for internal promotion, for successful administrative career; managerial and executive training, voluntary and continuous training.

Institutional training in co-operation with other centres and organisations. This is the response of the IEF to the aims of the Ministry, to its commitments with Government bodies, with economic and social agents and to international general agreements.

This co-operation may be divided into three major areas:

- Institutional participation and national co-operation covenants within the Tax Law field and the economic and financial area (joint action of Autonomous Communities, co-operation agreements with Universities, Unions Federations, Local Authorities and other Ministries and Managerial Centres).

- Co-operation with European and international bodies and institutions. This co-operation comprises relations with administrations, institutes and centres in areas of mutual interest as well as programmes provided by the European Union.

- Co-operation with Latin American bodies and institutions. This co-operation reflects technical assistance actions provided by the IEF in accordance with objectives assigned: Training programme regarding taxation or public expenditure for Latin American civil servants in collaboration with the Spanish Agency for International Co-operation; activities recommended by the State Tax Agency in the CIAT; enhancing projects in various fields included in the IADB programmes and other bilateral interventions with different countries.
Finally, we must mention the Open University Associated Centre in the IEF providing the entrance course into the University and different university degrees.

RESEARCH

The IEF, as the research Centre of Spanish Public Finance, carries out its activities in both theoretical and applied aspects from a variety of perspectives: economic, juridical, sociological and historical. These activities consist of specific research tasks, activities in support of research (scholarships and grants for doctoral theses), design of economic statistics, development and implementation of analysis and assessment models dealing with tax and public expenditure effects; and, finally of publicising results.

Analysis and research tasks are organised along major research lines which are entrusted to the two General Subdirectorates.

Research lines of the Subdirectorate General of Tax Studies.

Fiscal policy analysis from a micro-simulation perspective. It aims at implementing a programme of fiscal policy micro-simulation which enables it to carry out an economic assessment of tax reform proposals regarding direct and indirect taxation, and provides a dynamic analysis of the behaviour of agents involved, tax collection or the budgetary costs of these measures, and the changes in income redistribution and social welfare.

The creation of a micro-simulation unit entails the design of the micro-simulator itself, the establishment of a unit on fiscal policy analysis where technical surveys on fiscal reforms and assessment surveys on the effects of fiscal designs already implemented are provided departing from the inception of this programme . The working of the first micro-simulator modules will enable the introduction of a research line on efficiency and income distribution of alternative tax designs, and assess past or future tax reforms regarding different taxes. Territorial analysis of these issues offers an important research line on Regional (Autonomous Communities) and Local Authorities finance.

Education expenditure effects on the labour market

This research line that analyses education expenditure and its effects on the labour market is a complementary aspect to studies on the incidence of the fiscal system as regards such a market from an efficiency and equity point of view. Beginning with an assessment of education returns, the aim consists of assessing fiscal expenditure in the different educational levels, by studying households where some of their members benefit from these expenditure programmes and the distribution of tax burden in such households.

Analysis of income distribution

The aim is to analyse theoretical and applied aspects dealing with the distribution of income in Spain and in the other EU members. The characteristics which define the distribution of income and are considered are: inequality, polarity, poverty groups and income mobility.

Research lines of the Subdirectorate General of Budgetary Studies and Public Expenditure

Finance of Autonomous Communities

This research line aims to study different global finance proposals of Autonomous Communities, combining tax income and grants and enabling an acceptable balance with respect to autonomy, solidarity and simplicity. Its purpose is to analyse the effects of the reform of the existing regional finance system (for Autonomous Communities), focussing on its adequacy to these principles.

Local Finance and control of local public expenditure

The purpose of this research line is to study and analyse all the issues regarding the Local Pact such as the competence model, issues regarding a level higher than the local one and all aspects concerning the finance of local corporations.

Finance of Health Service

The transfer of health competence to the regions (Autonomous Communities, AC) and since January 1st 2002 the revision of their finance system included in the general finance system of A.C. opens a debate on issues directly affecting the National Health system. The aims of the research are as follows: to establish allocation criteria for funds between the different Communities, to assess alternative finance models and to analyse systems of resource allocation to health care providers according to health assistance levels.

The Effects of Fiscal Discipline on the Debt Cost

The literature on economic benefits derived from fiscal discipline has particularly focused on the perception of financial market as to the application of policies refraining budget and public expenditure and their incidence on indebtedness cost. This research line analyses the effects of tax variables in the development of the Spanish public debt cost in the 1970-1999 period and the influence of the deficit reduction policy on this cost in recent years.

Working Line as Regards Statistical Information

In addition to prime research lines mentioned above, the IEF has set up the IESPE project with an aim to reduce existing restrictions on the dissemination of abundant information regarding the economic activity carried out by the public sector, thus making the assistance to researchers universal and increasing the added value of information.

In this project, the main output is a database which contains information on variables providing an overview of relevant characteristics of the public economic activity, from its income and expenditure perspectives. This database which is available through the Internet contains much target information which facilitates data interpretation.

Information currently available in BADESPE makes reference to: Personal Income Tax statistics VAT statistics, tax collection of each and every tax, (managed by the State, transferred to the Regions or forfeit taxes), State General Budget, General Budget of Local Authorities. The content of Badespe is undergoing continuous expansion.

PUBLISHING ACTIVITY

The IEF is entrusted with the initiative and definition of the publishing policy derived from its research, consultant and teaching activity. This editorial task has been, for a number of years, one of the more characteristic identity features and an irreplaceable vehicle for professionals to express their views in Spain and abroad .

The policy is established as a yearly editorial programme which includes collections of books, monographs and the journals Hacienda Pública, Crónica Tributaria, Presupuesto y Gasto Público, as well as the publication of Research Studies, Working Papers and Working Documents.

DOCUMENTATION CENTRE

The IEF has a comprehensive library specialising in Public Finance, Public Economics Financial and Fiscal Law, Statistics, Administrative, Civil and Commerce Law and other side economic financial areas. Its bibliographical on-line data base contains about 120,000 records, monographs, periodicals, journal articles, works with updating pages. The IEF library may be considered as one of the more important in the world within our field of study.

MANAGING TEAM

The managing team is made up of a Board of Governors (Consejo rector) and a General Director. The Directorate of the School of Public Finance (as a Subdirectorate General), the Research and Study Area with a Subdirectorate General of Tax Studies and a Subdirectorate General of Budgetary and Public Expenditure Studies and, finally a Subdirectorate General of Resources Organization, Planning and Managing depend on the General Director. The Subdirectorate General of Training of Senior civil servants of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Subdirectorate General of Training management civil servants (this group of civil servants are not senior) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance are integrated in the School of Public Finance.
Finally, the Subdirectorate General of Resources Organization, Planning and Management implements the functions of management of general services and administration, the library management and in general the management of resources and means of the Institute.
The IEF has 240 employees: 183 civil servants and 57 employees working on contract. In addition, there are three important groups: associate researchers and scholars who are being trained (these two first groups carry out their activities in the Institute itself) and the group of external teachers or lecturers teaching in the School of Public Finance and in the Associate Centre of the Open University.
The headquarters of the IEF is located in 378 Cardenal Herrera Oria Avenue, Madrid . It covers about 30,000 square meters. For training, it has 33 classrooms in the head office and 23 in the regional centres: eight in Barcelona, three in Seville and four in La Coruña. These classrooms are equipped with computers and appropriate teaching facilities.