Participatory Budgeting (PB) has emerged as one of the major innovations in participatory governance for local management and local democracy worldwide. With more than 3,000 experiences recorded in over forty countries, PB is gradually changing the living conditions of increasing numbers of...

Central government bailouts of local governments are commonly viewed as a recipe for local fiscal indiscipline, as local governments learn that the center will come to the rescue in times of trouble. However, little is known about the consequences of bailouts granted conditional on local...

Persistent budget deficits are commonly blamed on irresponsible governments. However, even if the government is fiscally responsible, the agents in charge of implementing the budget may be less concerned about fiscal discipline. According to the survey data analyzed in this paper, such conflicts...

This Discussion Paper deals with the institutional and economic aspects of the Brazilian federative state according to the 1988 Constitution. The context of vertical coordination of urban infrastructure investments is then examined. Previous studies have shown that the benefits of economic...

We examine how highway accessibility influences local employment outcomes. We exploit the stagewise expansion of the "Baltic Sea highway", the largest contiguous highway construction project in Germany since 1945. Results from difference-indifferences estimations and an event study approach show...

We illustrate how the two mid-sized post-socialist eastern German cities Potsdam and Rostock have managed to become climate pioneers, despite being located in regions that have been reluctant with regard to climate action. Drawing on municipal documentation and fieldwork interviews, we show how...

This paper, conducted as part of the research activities of SOSE S.p.A., develops a simple and innovative model to evaluate the performance of local government in the provision of local public services. The model employs a reduced set of information and fewer assumptions than traditional...

Energy industries are mainly organised at national level in Hungary, however local governments have their specific role in the system. Local governments have been major performers in the first period of the transition process: they were entitled to receive 25 per cent of the shares in electric...

The drastic increase in volume of local government debt in Hungary started in 2006. My hypothesis assumes that a supposable improvement in local municipal financial management might resulted in the spread of bond issue, which in Hungary is still considered innovative. The paper is aimed at...

This paper examines whether revenue decentralization and direct external financial supervision affect the incidence and strength of political budget cycles, using a panel of Israeli municipalities during the period 1999-2009. We find that high dependence on central government transfers - as...