The idea of fiscal decentralisation has become increasingly fashionable world-wide. But every country has unique features of the intergovernmental fiscal system. In general municipal expenditures are rapidly growing in European countries. On the other hand local tax increases are not easily...

This paper investigates the development of local public finance in Germany, Switzerland, Poland and the United Kingdom. In this context important characteristics of municipal expenditures and revenues are examined in these countries. Differences in government structure (i.e. unitary or federal)...

Estonian municipalities should perform a broad range of functions, while their fiscal resources are often limited and large disparities in fiscal capacity prevail among them. Moreover, the power to regulate fiscal affairs is mostly in the hands of the central government. We discuss how a strict...

The idea of fiscal decentralisation has become increasingly fashionable world-wide. In some developed countries the systems of intergovernmental finance have evolved gradually and each country has unique features. Transition countries on different continents have had differing reasons and...

This study investigates major features of land-use strategies that German municipalities have adopted to attract innovative firms (IFs). In this context a two-stage competition model is introduced: firstly a municipality should solve economic and interest conflicts related to its preference for...

Die Studie des ifo Instituts München, die in Zusammenarbeit mit con_sens Hamburg erstellt wurde, zeigt die angespannte Situation des überörtlichen Sozialhilfeträgers im Freistaat Sachsen, dem Landeswohlfahrtsverband (LWV) auf. Ursächlich dafür sind stetig steigende Fallzahlen in der...

In der vorliegenden Studie "Die Besteuerung gemeinnütziger Organisationen im internationalen Vergleich" wird in einem internationalen Vergleich dargelegt, wie die Besteuerung der gemeinnützigen Organisationen in den anderen EU-Ländern sowie Japan und den USA geregelt ist. Insbesondere werden...

This study identifies the shadow market area of air pollutants based on the Gaussian plume model. Since pollutants are dispersed by wind, transport costs are irrelevant in its formation. Pollutant distribution on the ground level has an asymmetric bell-shape in the wind direction. Apart from the...

VAT evasion caused by the growth of carousel fraud has recently led to significant VAT revenue losses in the EU. Carousel fraud works such that intra-EU firms repeatedly carry out cross-border supply and purchase of goods and services, leading to the fraudulent retention of revenue. This study...

Intergovernmental transfers can be either conditional or unconditional with regard to the autonomy of local governments in spending such financial means. Although fiscal decentralisation has recently been quite pronounced in Eastern European transition countries, the dominance of a purpose- and...