America's local governments spend about one-eighth of our national income, one-fourth of total government spending, and employ over 14 million people. This paper surveys the large and growing economics literature on local governments and their finances. A primary difference between local and...

Local governments are reluctant to contract out public services. This paper shows that resistance to contracting out is not at odds with efficiency. The sample includes all 135 municipalities that were distributing gas in an Italian region when a national reform ended in-house delivery....

Spain has a population distribution dispersed in small population centres where 60% of municipalities have less than 1,000 inhabitants. This situation generates a financial and functional incapacity to guarantee the successful and efficient provision of local public services. In order to fulfil...

Saudi Arabia experience structural economic changes embodied by Vision 2030. One of the main aspects of this master plan is related to the financial markets and developing its instruments. This paper is devoted to developing new financial instrument called Municipality Sukuk (MuSk), and bring it...

Contents: Preface -- Part I Frameworks for central-local government relations -- 1. Frameworks for central-local government relations and fiscal sustainability / Peter J. Morgan and Long Q. Trinh -- 2. Looking beyond conventional intergovernmental fiscal frameworks: principles, realities, and...