Finnish municipalities enjoy ample fiscal autonomy and provide or arrange the provision of a large share of public services. In recent years, their spending and debt has been increasing steadily, especially because of population ageing and increases in the cost of health care and social...

This paper analyses how fiscal adjustment comes about when both central and sub-national governments are involved in consolidation. We test sustainability of public debt with a fiscal rule for both the federal and regional government. Results for the German Länder show that lower tier...

The right way to measure the degree and extent of the different aspects of fiscal decentralization has been a long-debated, yet underdeveloped issue. There has been little consensus on the right approach to developing a single indicator which is sometimes needed to show a general trend in fiscal...

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of economic openness on the vertical structure of the public sector within a country. To tackle this issue we set up a simple theoretical model of fiscal federalism, where both central and local public spending enter the objective functions of...

This paper discusses the problems regarding the decentralisation of a formerly communist country. In Georgia, the first steps towards decentralisation failed, since the transition process led to a power vacuum that escalated in bloody conflicts and secessionist movements. The status of Abkhazia...

Economic issues will be key determinants of the outcome of the Scottish referendum on independence. Pensions are a key element of the economic case for or against independence. The costs of funding pensions in an independent Scotland would be influenced by mortality risks, the costs of borrowing...

Public spending is very high in Norway, partly reflecting an extensive coverage of the welfare system and ambitious regional development objectives. Moreover, several institutional features contribute to dampening the cost-effectiveness of many public-spending programmes. Abundant oil revenues...

Norwegian local governments that violate the balanced budget rule (BBR) are placed in a register. The consequence of being in the register is that the budget and resolutions to raise new loans must be approved by the county governor, the central government's representative in the county. Local...

This article is an original contribution to the understanding of the relationship between fiscal decentralization and public expenditure composition. Relying on recent panel cointegration techniques, our findings show that the level of decentralization influences the expenditure composition of...

This study explores the evolution of fiscal resource distribution in Pakistan. Pakistan is a federation comprising four provinces, federallyadministered areas, and the Islamabad Capital Territory. Being a central type of government, most of the revenues are collected by the centre and then...