Transfers and bailouts: enforcing local fiscal discipline with lessons from U.S. federalism / Robert P. Inman -- Constraining subnational fiscal behavior in Canada: different approaches, similar results? / Richard M. Bird and Almos Tassonyi -- Vertical imbalance and fiscal behavior in a welfare...

In many parts of the world, lower levels of government are taking over responsibilities from national authorities. This often leads to difficulty in maintaining fiscal discipline. So-called soft budget constraints allow these subnational governments to expand expenditures without facing the full...