Fiscal Federalism 2016

Fiscal Federalism 2016 covers: spending and tax devolution, fiscal constitutions of federal countries, immovable property taxation, the spending power of sub-central governments, the own tax resources and intergovernmental grants mix, and rules and frameworks for sustainable debt management.

Fiscal Federalism 2016 surveys recent trends and policies in intergovernmental fiscal relations and sub-central government. Accessible and easy-to read chapters provide insight: into growing spending and tax devolution; the fiscal constitutions of federal countries; how immovable property taxation is regaining its former significance; on the true spending power of sub central governments; on the mix between own tax resources and intergovernmental grants; and on the role of fiscal rules and good budget frameworks for sustainable debt management at the state and local level.

Over the past few decades, a clear trend has emerged worldwide toward the devolution of spending and, to a lesser extent, revenue-raising responsibilities to state and local levels of government. One view is that the decentralization of spending responsibilities can entail substantial gains in terms of distributed equity and macroeconomic management. The papers in this volume, edited by Teresa Ter-Minassian, examine the validity of these views in light of theoretical considerations, as well as the experience of a number of countries.

This highly original book analyzes political decentralization and fiscal federalism in Canada and Germany, both traditional federal countries, and in Spain, a unitarian country engaged in the last two decades in a process of decentralization. The three key issues required for a well designed financing system are analyzed in depth herein, namely: tax assignment, equalization grants (i.e. redistribution of money from the wealthy regions or the national government to poorer regions) and the role of regional government in the administration of taxes. Fiscal Federalism and Political Decentralization will be of particular interest to academics and researchers of economics, public economics, public finance and public choice. It will also appeal to politicians and policy makers as well as organizations and agencies related to the economy and fiscal federalism.

This book provides an overview on recent trends and policies in intergovernmental fiscal relations and sub-central govenrment.

Monograph analysing concept of a fiscal federalism in which taxation and debt finance in a federal system is dealt with.

This edited collection provides a comprehensive geographic and chronological overview of the decentralisation processes in the successor states of former Yugoslavia and Albania during their transition and EU integration years, from 1990 until 2016. These countries present a unique laboratory for the analysis of economic, social and political change, having traversed armed conflicts, dramatic economic and political changes, and EU pre-accession processes involving deep institutional reform. They have also endured the Eurozone crisis, which has led to high levels of unemployment, wide fiscal gaps and dangerously high levels of indebtedness. Observing the quarter century-long transition from socialism to capitalism through the prism of decentralisation sheds new light on studying the political economy of the region and the current status of the individual countries in terms of economic development and their EU integration progress. The contributors enrich the wider literature on fiscal decentralisation in transition countries by exploring several broad questions on democratisation, the political economy of post-communist transition, the role of external actors in policy transfer and the issue of financial stability in the post-crisis period.