Scholars and courts recognize that the federal government uses its broad spending power to enlist states in achieving federal goals, thereby expanding the federal government’s reach beyond the areas enumerated for it in the Constitution. Similarly, the federal government can achieve similar...

A reasonable and fair interpretation of the mandate for equalization payments in Section 36(2) of the Canadian Constitution differs from the present equalization formula in these respects: Transfers to the poorer provinces would be financed by transfers from the richer provinces rather than from...

This paper deals with interbudgetary relations and subnational finances in the Russian Federation. The authors focus on major trends in relations between budgets of different levels, measures taken by the federal government to mitigate the crisis impact on the regions

In federal countries, such as the U.S., the fiscal authority consists not of one, but many governments, with state governments accounting for a sizable share of expenditures. We analyze how state partisanship of politicians affects state fiscal policy and quantify the possible macroeconomic...

This paper aims to provide an overview of the basics of Japan's local public administration and finance system and to analyze how Japan's municipalities restore their fiscal balance after a fiscal shock. In Japan, local governments play a major role in redistribution. Combined with regional...

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

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...

Using the exogenous variability in intergovernmental transfers and hydrocarbon royalties, based on the fiscal regime that prevailed in Argentina from 1988 to 2003, we jointly estimate the effects that changes in these public revenues had on provincial public consumption and debt. When receiving...

An unfunded expenditure mandate occurs when a local government must provide a good or service by dictate of a higher level of government that does not supply an accompanying revenue source to fully finance the expenditure. This paper is the first to provide empirical evidence on the influence of...