This book offers a step forward in finding out how the new decentralized institutional arrangements affect local economic development. In particular, it analyzes how local governments can use their increasing powers and responsibilities to improve productivity and quality of life in their...

This collection of experiences of fiscal decentralisation across a wide range of OECD-Member and non-member economies reveals lessons which are equally of relevance to both groups of countries. A major finding is that fiscal decentralisation is often confused in the latter group of countries...

Despite large differences across countries, Latin America’s average investment-to-GDP ratio and the overall quality of infrastructure in the region are relatively low by international comparison. Empirical evidence on the effects of fiscal decentralisation on investment based on a panel of...

In a monetary union, the interaction between several governments and a single central bank is plagued by several sources of deficit bias, including common pool problems. Each government has strong preferences over local spending and taxation but suffers only part of the costs of union-wide...