Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>This paper presents an estimation of expenditure needs and fiscal capacity of Colombia's municipalities and departments in 2014. We use standard <jats:italic>per capita</jats:italic> norms to estimate the spending needs and data envelopment analysis for the local fiscal capacity. The results show that: (i) there are high horizontal fiscal disparities in Colombia, with greater incidence in municipalities than in departments; (ii) these disparities favour more developed territories; and (iii) there is evidence of a centre‐periphery pattern in the horizontal fiscal disparities, causing central regions of the country to have a lower imbalance between expenditure needs and fiscal capacity.</jats:p>