Paper Title
The Impact of Fiscal Decentralization on the Quality of Life in the Republic of Croatia

Abstract
The decentralization of fiscal activities has become extremely significant in recent decades and it should improve the efficiency of the provision of services and the supply of public goods. Decentralization is the transfer of authority and responsibility from the central level of government to lower levels of government in the performance of public functions. The Croatian low defines decentralization functions of primary and secondary education, social welfare, health, and firefighting. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of fiscal decentralization through the financial expenditures of the local level of government for decentralized functions in the Republic of Croatia and the share of autonomous tax revenues of the local level of government on infant mortality rates. In this paper, fiscal decentralization is measured through the financial expenditures of the local level of government for decentralized functions of health, education, and social welfare and also through the main measure of fiscal decentralization - the share of autonomous tax revenues of the local level of government as a share of the general tax revenue. Numerous international organizations consider infant mortality to be one of the basic measures of the overall health of society and the community, therefore, the infant mortality rate, in this paper, is used as a measure of the quality of life of the population of the Republic of Croatia. Multiple linear regression of the influence of independent variables on the infant mortality rate through a multiple correlation coefficient indicates a strong correlation between the observed variables. Keywords - Fiscal Decentralization, Decentralized Functions, Infant Mortality Rate, Republic of Croatia.