1. The Local Budget as a Complex System—Concepts and Definitions -- 2. Fiscal Sustainability in the Short and Long Runs -- 3. The Revenue Module -- 4. The Expenditure Module -- 5. Debt -- 6. Economic Development -- 7. The Feedback Loop -- 8. Sustainability and Bliss -- 9. Conclusions and...

Fiscal rules are laws aimed at reducing the incentive to accumulate debt, and many countries adopt them to discipline local governments. Yet, their effectiveness is disputed because of commitment and enforcement problems. We study their impact applying a quasi-experimental design in Italy. In...

The budgets governments present around the beginning of their fiscal years and the financial statements they publish in their annual reports after their fiscal years have ended are critical tools for legislators and voters to hold them accountable. The transparency of these documents to...

Research on the fiscal consequences of multi-level governance has largely focused on the interaction between federal and state governments. Yet, the federal system in the United States is considerably more complex, and includes the vertical layering of governments at the local level. This...