Growing experience with decentralization indicates that a country's public finance system suffers when subnational governments expose themselves to excessive risk. But central governments often lack the information needed to monitor the fiscal risks of subnational governments. Several countries,...

The economic policy note discusses the issue of serious fiscal instability faced by many governments as a result of their contingent liabilities, which are associated with major hidden fiscal risks. Direct liabilities are predictable obligations that will arise in any event, and are the main...

In 1999, the Indonesian Parliament adopted two laws requiring that drastic decentralization measures be implemented in fiscal 2001 in a "big bang" fashion. Several lessons can be drawn from Indonesia's experience. 1) Ideally, decentralization should be managed so that the devolution of fiscal...