En dépit de la réputation de la France, autrefois bien méritée, d’être un État très centralisé, un nombre significatif de compétences ont été transférées aux collectivités territoriales au cours des deux dernières décennies. Le processus n’a pas été simple. Le nombre...

Ce document de travail porte sur l’état actuel des relations budgétaires entre les différents niveaux d’administration en Belgique ainsi que sur la manière dont celles-ci ont évolué au fil du temps. Partant du constat que le système qui donne corps au fédéralisme budgétaire est...

France has a track record of persistent general government deficits, partly reflecting pro-cyclical fiscal policies in upswings. This has resulted in a quadrupling of its public debt-to-GDP ratio since the 1970s to above 80% of GDP. Reducing public debt is crucial because a high level of public...

In 2004, 41 Zones Franches Urbaines (ZFU) have replaced less generous Zones de Redynamisation Urbaine (ZRU). ZFUs are particularly generous Enterprise Zones schemes in which establishments are exempted from all taxes and social contributions for 5 years. A first wave of ZFUs was zoned in 1997,...

Considering that the French metropolitan area makers decided not to respect the 1999’s law and its spirit, this paper intends to highlight the reasons why the French State accepted this situation so easily. First, the degrees of freedom taken by local elected actors are stressed thanks to two...

It is a long time since the problem of the lack of direct universal suffrage for the French metropolitan areas with own taxes (MAOT) has been pointed out. Nevertheless, nothing has ever been done to change this current situation, in spite of a wide agreement in favor of direct universal suffrage...

This paper aims at questioning the link between local finances and the economic dynamism of cities. This issue is based on the frequently stressed cases (by the media) of uncontrolled expenses of cities, increased level of local taxes and negative effects on local economics. Therefore, as a...

This paper intends to question the current development of metropolitan areas in France, and its induced effects. Contrary to the expected benefits (lower costs for the production of public services, scale economies), metropolitan, areas in France has entailed an increase in local taxes and tax...