This paper analyses the impact of funding source of the bailout on the softness of the regional budget constraint. We show that the funding source of the bailout has a considerable impact both on the credibility of the federal government's commitment and on the regional opportunistic behaviour....

This paper proposes a system of tradable deficit permits for implementing budgetary austerity at the local level. We evaluate the efficiency of the fiscal retrenchment allocation in a dynamic setting with a commitment problem. The way rights are allcated and traded on the market turns out to be...