In some ways, a 2012 symposium on “Dilemmas of State Debt” may seem a bit behind the news curve. At the end of 2010, municipal bond markets were in a deep funk. Analysts predicted that countless municipalities and perhaps one or more of the United States might default on their debt...

European debates over reform of the fiscal governance of the euro area frequently reference fiscal federalism in the United States. The "fiscal compact" agreed by the European Council during 2011 provided for the introduction of, among other things, constitutional rules or framework laws known...

In this paper we empirically investigate the relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth in the European countries, using panel dataset for 31 European countries, over the period 1972-2012. Our empirical results indicate that fiscal decentralization, quantitatively measured...