Theoretical developments in political economy analyses of intergovernmental transfers identify several factors previously ignored in the empirical literature and emphasize the importance of institutional details. Combined, these two developments create a degrees of freedom problem and make cross...

Unlike most of the world’s federations – including Australia, Canada, Germany, India, South Africa and numerous others – the United States has no system of federal equalization grants in place to reduce fiscal disparities among its subnational governments. Only at the state level, through...

The relative scope of federal and state power under the U.S. Constitution has been a major bone of contention for over 200 years. Courts have sometimes enforced substantial limits on federal authority by striking down federal laws deemed to be outside the scope of Congress’ enumerated powers...

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...

En este trabajo se ofrece primero una radiografía sobre el panorama que se desprende del estudio para 2005 en materia de equidad en la redistribución. En segundo lugar se plantean y discuten diferentes escenarios de reestructuración de las transferencias efectuadas por regiones ricas que...

Fiscal decentralization and intergovernmental fiscal relations reform have become nearly ubiquitous in developing countries. Performance, however, has often been disappointing in terms of both policy formulation and outcomes. The dynamics underlying these results have been poorly researched....