Estudio cualitativo sobre el diseño de políticas fiscales y tributarias

Recently, collaborative learning among institutions has gained prominence in generating new initiatives in the public sphere. The academic literature recognizes social interaction as a process through which knowledge is generated and shared among institutions, policymakers, and technical experts. The aim of this work is to identify the mechanisms most frequently used in the design of fiscal and tax policies, as well as the level of consideration of the opinion and interests of different groups and institutions involved in the process.We propose the use of focus group methodology with two main objectives: (i) to explore which mechanisms of fiscal policy design (social learning, spillover effects, tax competition, yardstick competition, etc.) are being most commonly used in our country, (ii) to analyze to what extent the needs and concerns of citizens, businesses, workers, etc. are being considered in the design of fiscal policy. To achieve this, an initial session is conducted with technical experts from the public administration and tax agency of the Valencian Community, followed by another session with political participants from the national territory.As a result, the technical profile indicates a preference for reducing the creation of policies based on a comparative analysis of policies implemented in other autonomous communities, while the political profile suggests to give more importance to social learning as a new emerging mechanism. Regarding the groups or institutions, both technical and political individuals agree that greater importance should be placed on the opinions or perspectives of business and union organizations. This practice could contribute to the development of more effective and equitable fiscal policies in Spanish society. Future research is proposed to address the study object from the perspective of these types of organizations.