This paper discusses the current state of fiscal relations between the federal, state and local governments in the United States and suggests directions for improvement. The significant degree of fiscal autonomy of the states and, to a lesser extent, of local governments has had several...

In some ways, a 2012 symposium on “Dilemmas of State Debt” may seem a bit behind the news curve. At the end of 2010, municipal bond markets were in a deep funk. Analysts predicted that countless municipalities and perhaps one or more of the United States might default on their debt...

In the context of continuing adjustments in the economy, the Government of Indonesia proposes to bring energy prices closer to long run marginal cost, while adequately compensating the poor. We focus on the constraints on central government policy objectives towards the poor as decentralization...

Despite being one of the smallest countries in the OECD, Israel is marked by significant socio-economic disparities, which have a clear spatial dimension. Ethnic and religious groups with weak socio-economic outcomes are not benefitting from the thriving high-tech sector in the centre of the...

This paper discusses how taxation may affect migration, economic efficiency and income distribution. The institutional framework is a federal system, in which local authorities are responsible for the supply of public services and the financing of these services, and where the central...

We analyze a model where the federal government provides risk sharing arrangements to municipalities investing in a local public good. The risk sharing arrangements are an income equalization system and a system allowing for a soft budget constraint, i.e., a bailout. Our main result is that a...

The present work aims to explore the existing theories about the size of the public sector and test empirically in Brazilian municipalities. The theoretical model assumes that the economy has only two sectors: the public and the private. The latter receives productivity shocks while the former...

Nach Ansicht von René Geißler, Bertelsmann Stiftung, sind die Voraussetzungen für eine Neuverhandlung der bundesstaatlichen Finanzbeziehungen »nicht die Schlechtesten«, da auch der Koalitionsvertrag bereits einige finanzielle Zugeständnisse und Verhandlungsaufträge enthalte.

André W. Heinemann, Universität Bremen, sieht die Chance, die bundesstaatliche Finanzverteilungsarchitektur durch den Abbau heute nicht mehr begründbarer Finanzströme zu entrümpeln, durch die Bündelung gleichgerichteter Finanzströme zu vereinfachen und durch Reduzierung des...

Michael Thöne, Finanzwissenschaftliches Forschungsinstitut an der Universität zu Köln, stellt einen Finanzausgleich, der das Attribut »zukunftsfest« verdient, vor.