Local public finance regulation differs among countries. The intention of this chapter is to compare current regulatory systems, uncover similarities and differences and provide some cautious explanations on developments. As example, three Southeast European countries - Slovenia, Croatia and...

The study is dedicated to identify the main factors determining the propensity of local authorities to compete for the access to the limited as well as mobile sources of local tax revenue. The success of such an activity should be discussed in relation to the stabilization of local budget...

Die explorative Untersuchung greift den Befund auf, dass in Nordrhein-Westfalen die kommunalen Ausgaben in den Bereichen Allgemeine Verwaltung und Soziale Sicherung überdurchschnittlich hoch sind. Vor dem Hintergrund der anhaltenden Finanzprobleme zahlreicher nordrhein-westfälischer Städte,...

The crisis of the city of Naples started in 2011, with the recognition of a government deficit that led to financial crisis. However, regulations have allowed an alternative route, based on the idea that within ten years current difficulties could be overcome. The city of Naples has chosen this...

This paper examines the effects of local politician pay on performance for Dutch municipalities. Although literature has argued wages partly determine the value of holding political office and thereby higher wages may improve the quality of a candidate pool, no straightforward theoretical...

Die explorative Untersuchung greift den Befund auf, dass in Nordrhein-Westfalen die kommunalen Ausgaben in den Bereichen Allgemeine Verwaltung und Soziale Sicherung überdurchschnittlich hoch sind. Vor dem Hintergrund der anhaltenden Finanzprobleme zahlreicher nordrhein-westfälischer Städte,...

States’ unfunded pension obligations to their current and retired employees have exploded in recent years to levels that are estimated to be between $750 billion and $4.4 trillion. In theory, this massive debt should have implications for states’ ability to meet their financial obligations...

As local governments seek to address growing financial challenges, many will consider a variety of cost-cutting measures, including joint service provision with other localities. This policy brief examines the potential savings from large-scale service-sharing arrangements, using the specific...

Using a sample of the 48 mainland U.S. states for the period 1973-2009, we study the ability of U.S. states to expand their own state employment through the use of state deficit policies. The analysis allows for the facts that U.S. states are part of a wider monetary and economic union with free...

This study is intended to provide a critical overview of the local government finance reform and analyze the process of strengthening financial decentralization in Bulgaria. First of all, the specifics of government structure and the main components of the legal base in the scope of local...

During the Great Recession and its aftermath, state and local governments’ revenue streams dried up due to diminished taxes. Budget cuts affected many aspects of government; in this paper, we investigate whether (and how) local school districts modified their funding and taxing decisions in...

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, many local governments have experienced significant financial strain. Local governments’ financial challenges are likely to continue in the foreseeable future, as federal deficit-reducing measures trigger cuts in state and local aid and as all levels of...

Local financing of public schools in the United States leads to a bundling of two distinct choices – residential choice and school choice – and has been argued to increase the degree of socioeconomic segregation across school districts. A school finance reform, aimed at equalization of...

The objective of democratic decentralization is to enable institutions at the grassroots level to take decisions in matters related to the day to day life of the people. Transparency and accountability do not happen on their own: they have to be promoted and delivered by performing institutions....

There is little evidence of regional, let alone worldwide, trends in local finances, although trends within particular countries certainly exist. Given the path-dependent and context-specific nature of country experiences, one must be very careful both in categorizing the local finance systems...

Large cities and metropolitan areas differ from smaller urban or rural municipalities—they have much larger populations, higher concentrations of population, and populations that are more heterogeneous in terms of social and economic circumstances. Large cities are important generators of...

In this work we explore different scenarios for the reform of the Fondo de Compensación Interterritorial (FCI), which is a conditional grant from the state to the relatively poorer Spanish autonomous communities. To undertake the analysis we define the main elements of that vertical grant...

The process of gradual administrative and political decentralization in Bulgaria started in 1991, but the real financial decentralization process started in the beginning of 2003 with the adoption of a comparatively clear expenditure assignment and introduction of a transparent and predictable...

State and local governments, with revenues reduced sharply by the recession, are responding by cutting services, increasing tax rates, and drawing down reserves; they are also receiving some relief in the form of stimulus funds provided by the federal government. The stimulus funds legislated in...

This study is intended to examine the influence of the current worldwide financial and economic crisis on financial decentralization process in Bulgaria and identify the answers of the central and lo-cal governments to the critical situation in the context of specific conditions of the national...

State governments are much more likely than their local counterparts to depend on taxes other than sales, property, and personal income taxes. Excises on alcohol, beer, tobacco, gambling, and business taxes are among the alternative taxes. Local governments, on the other hand, are more likely to...

The wage paid to politicians affects both the choice of citizens to run for an elective office and the performance of those who are appointed. First, if skilled individuals shy away from politics because of higher opportunities in the private sector, an increase in politicians' pay may change...

This study asks if local governments which provide a high level of public services per tax dollar attract housing capital. The first portion of the paper examines large shifts in property tax burdens induced by an unusual school finance reform in the state of New Hampshire. The estimates suggest...

The Policy Paper seeks to give voice to a local government vision on financing and stems from a shared understanding of the challenges we face. The Policy Paper contains 25 concrete recom- mendations for increasing local government access to infrastructure financing, particular- ly in developing...

The wage paid to politicians affects both the choice of citizens to run for an elective office and the performance of those who are appointed. First, if skilled individuals shy away from politics because of higher opportunities in the private sector, an increase in politicians' pay may change...

The article discusses the central conclusions of the study "Evaluation of Regional Fiscal Framework: Business Location and Local Finance" (Barreira, 2008). A reflection on some of the core principles of local finance, equity and benefit, shows that there are inconsistencies in the case of the...

The process of gradual administrative and political decentralization in Bulgaria started in 1991 with the adoption of the Local Self-Government and Local Administration Act, but the real financial decentralization process started in the beginning of 2003 with the adoption of a comparatively...

This paper designs a new equalization-aid formula based on fiscal gaps of local communities. Using conceptual analysis and simulations with Massachusetts data, the authors illustrate the tradeoffs that policymakers face in deciding on the policy variables in the formula and lay out several...

Across different layers of the U.S. government there are surprisingly large differences in institutional provisions that impose fiscal discipline, such as constitutionally mandated deficit or debt limits, or specific tax bases. In this paper we develop a framework that can be used to...

The goal of this article is to describe and analyze community development spending at the state level for the period 1981 to 2004. Two components of each state’s housing and community development spending are analyzed: transfers from the federal government that are subsequently spent by states...