This paper surveys recent research on decentralization and natural disasters. The first part discusses results from theoretical models that have been used to study the issues that arise when natural disasters occur in a country with more than one level of government. The next section discusses...

We use a large and unexplored dataset covering all mainland Portuguese municipalities from 1979 to 2001 to evaluate the impact of political forces in the allocation of grants from the central government to local authorities. Empirical results clearly show that, besides variables that proxy the...

This paper discusses the role of the state governments in the Brazilian federative system in the post-1988 Federal Constitution period, which is much characterized by cooperative and competitive mechanisms between the Union and the states and among the states themselves. The state governments...

The objective of this study is to investigate the fiscal capacity of the Brazilian states in the light of estimates of their indices of Autonomy, adopting as timeframe analysis the period following approval of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, passed in the year 2000. The text provides a brief...

This article aims to investigate the origin of unbalances and tensions between central and subnational governments concerned to the allocation of resources and decentralization of public policies. One argue that Brazilian federalism in recent years (2000-2012) has establishing a high level of...

The paper is devoted to problems of ensuring balanced and sustainable development of a very specific and important metropolitan region of the Russian Federation ? the region of St Petersburg and surrounding it Leningrad Oblast. St.Petersburg (City) and Leningrad Oblast (Region) are both...

In this paper, we develop an empirical framework for detecting the existence and estimating the magnitude of the softness of a budget constraint. The defining feature of a soft budget constraint is a subordinate organization's expectations of being bailed out by a superior organization in case...

This paper analyzes the process of reform of India's federal system, with a focus on fiscal federalism. We first summarize the basic features of, and recent reforms in intergovernmental relations, including the role of political institutions, assignments of expenditure responsibility and revenue...

This paper investigates the political economy of fiscal reform activism in Argentina since the late 1980s. Between 1988 and 2008, tax legislation was changed 83 times, fiscal federal rules 14 times, and budgetary institutions sixteen times. Tax and budgetary reforms moved from centralizing...

In this article it is discussed some neglected aspects of Brazilian fiscal federalism related to the costs of debt renegotiation processed in the 1990's. It has been argued there are negative impacts on regional economies that urge to be considered in the present times. Firstly, it is...