This paper deals with the management of three environmental policies at the local level: clean water distribution, sewage and wastewater treatment and household solid waste collection and treatment. The argument is that applying the benefit principle for financing these services will enhance...

This paper examines the infrastructure–decentralization nexus in the production of health services with a particular emphasis on the issue of health infrastructure. The first part of the paper presents evidence on health services and infrastructure spending in health for various countries or...

Most countries apply some form of restrictions to local government budgeting and borrowing, but in various forms and to varying degrees. These restrictions are considered necessary components of a fiscal federalism involving some sort of central government control in local affairs, a design...

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 tradition...

This paper presents the system of revenue-sharing between the Federal Government and the Cantons in Switzerland and proposes an estimation of incidences. The study of revenue-sharing formulas for the federal direct tax and the withholding tax indicates which sorts of equalization policies are...

Financing social security in Switzerland requires State subsidies for about 22 percent (1996) of total expenditures. The Federal government and the Cantons share this payment in proportion of +2/, respectively -A for six insurances, each time with grant formulas including components of fiscal...

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The debate about the amalgamation of local government units (thereafter LGUs for simplicity – in Switzerland: “communes” or “Gemeinden”) usually stems from the fact that LGUs’ political borders (the institutional territory) do no longer coincide with the economic boundaries required...

This study shows that the origins of the sovereign debt crisis within the euro area are to be found within the private sector and in economic policy mistakes rather than only in the profligacy of some national governments in the Southern periphery of Euroland. Sovereign debtors and their private...