In many countries occur problems from unfunded mandates related to a shift of a function by an upper tier of government to lower rank governments without providing the lower one with financial means to perform these functions. The authors define the unfunded mandates and clarify how they relate...

Despite the existence of strict budgetary frameworks and fiscal equalisation systems, municipal budget crisis has been a phenomenon in Germany for decades. As an institutional response, most German states implemented bailouts to restore local public finances. This chapter gives a brief...

The book is divided into two parts. The first part macro federalism provides a fresh look at emerging constitutional challenges arising from globalization and the information revolution, as well as the dynamic-efficiency and growth implications of existing federal constitutions. Several aspects...

Sub-national governments often finance substantial parts of their budgets via taxes on capital or other mobile factors - despite having access to alternative, less distortionary, revenue sources. This paper develops three hypotheses to explain this pattern and tests them in a natural experiment...

The present paper attempts to look into the nuances of the direct funding of local government from a vantage point of fiscal federalism in India and also the dynamics of financial decentralization. The reports of finance commissions regarding the devolution of tax powers to local governments in...