Recently Germany experienced yet another federal reform shortly after a previous modification to the German federal system. This paper explains agenda setting, negotiations and ratification of this recent federal reform. With regards to the case of the most recent federal reform in Germany the...

We explore how the vertical structure of direct democracy in a federal context affects expenditure decisions of sub-central governments. In so doing we revisit previous research on the effect of direct democratic institution on public policies. Particularly, the effect of upper-level (state)...

This paper deals with interbudgetary relations and subnational finances in the Russian Federation. The authors focus on the issue of subnational budgets during the financial crisis of 2008. They analyze financial aid from the federal budget to regional authorities

Fiscal decentralization (FD) and fiscal rules (FR) are institutional mechanisms that have been implemented in increasing number of countries by varying measures. This paper investigates empirically the effect of FR on the effectiveness of FD in achieving fiscal discipline. Panel evidence...

The paper provides empirical analysis of the relationship between fiscal decentralisation and the quality of public services in the Russian regions. The analysis suggests that fiscal decentralisation has no significant effect on the key inputs into secondary education, such as schools,...

Developed by Musgrave (1959) and Oates (1972), the concept of fiscal federalism describes the process performed by the central governments to deal with the distribution problem and refer the provision of services to decentralized governments. In this respect, centralized governments should...

The advantages and disadvantages of public sector decentralization are widely discussed in economics and political science. Some authors argue that decentralization leads to an optimal provision of public services and promotes economic growth, while others emphasize the dangers of competition...

This paper uses a simple model of fiscal competition between local jurisdictions to analyse the impact of intergovernmental grants on the composition of public spending. We find that a higher degree of redistribution within a system of fiscal equalisation coincides with a smaller overall share...