"Unintentional implicit subsidies (hidden costs) to public utilities can be considered an illegitimate claim on public resources. This paper examines the role and sources of hidden costs in the energy and water sectors in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region. It reviews available data and...

"Its highly fragmented structure of local governments and serious horizontal fiscal imbalances make Switzerland a surprisingly powerful model for Eastern European countries that are currently facing the challenge of fiscal decentralization. In spite of the substantial differences in the...