I investigate consumption smoothing (sensitivity) under a balanced budget rule in Swedish municipalities. In general, I find Swedish municipalities to be highly consumption sensitive during the time period 2001-2011 when the BBR was in place. A one percentage increase in predicted current...

Sustainable and inclusive growth in emerging Asian economies requires continued high levels of public sector investment in areas such as infrastructure, education, health, and social services. These responsibilities, especially with regard to infrastructure investment, need to be devolved...

A gradually introduced reform of local government accounting made it temporarily likely for municipalities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia to avoid the effective control of their budget by the authorities in charge with overseeing local government budgets and enforcing the existing...

This paper discusses trends in fiscal adjustment in Brazil since the 1990s, with particular emphasis on the strengthening of institutions for fiscal policymaking, and its effect on local government finances and their ability to invest in infrastructure building and upgrading. Although fiscal...

This chapter explores the impact of fiscal rules on the indebtedness of municipalities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia from a comparative perspective. Our analysis focuses on the content of municipal fiscal rules, their impact on aggregate levels of local government debt in both countries and...

Fiscal consolidation in Greek and German local governments differs for many reasons. While some German local governments experienced a long period of austerity, driven by economic decline and federal and state measures, the global financial crisis and "troika" programme caused the need for harsh...