Handbook Of Fiscal Federalism

This volume provides comprehensive coverage of fiscal federalism by some of the leading scholars in the field. . . This Handbook is an excellent addition to the present discourse on the role of the state in fiscal matters. This reviewer would recommend this book as a required text for a graduate or senior class on public finance or economic development. Researchers in economic development, public finance, and fiscal policy likewise would find this volume useful. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. J. Raman, Choice This major Handbook addresses fiscal relations between different levels of government under the general rubric of fiscal federalism , providing a review of the latest literature as well as an invaluable guide for practitioners and policy makers seeking informed policy options. The contributors include leading lights in the field, many of whom have themselves made seminal contributions to the literature. Comprehensive and wide in coverage, the issues covered range from federal systems to other forms of intergovernmental relations, such as supra-national constructs namely, the European Union unitary states, regional systems, and more decentralized operations, including community level organizations. The political economy approach emphasizes the importance of institutional arrangements, including the legal, political and administrative aspects, and information flows to ensure that there are appropriate incentives and sanctions to generate good governance. This Handbook also devotes attention to emerging issues, such as environmental protection, the sharing of natural resources among levels of government, corruption and the impact of federalism and decentralization on national unity. It will be a vital reference tool for the area for many years to come.

For more than two centuries federalism has provided an example of how people can live together even as they maintain their diversity. While the implosion of the former Yugoslavia illustrates that federalism is not, and cannot be, a panacea, its abiding success in other countries shows that it is a system worth examining. The Handbook of Federal Countries, 2002, a project of the Forum of Federations – an international network that seeks to strengthen democratic governance by promoting dialogue on and understanding of the values, practices, principles, and possibilities of federalism – does exactly this, incorporating available information about existing federations in one place for easy, convenient reference.The Handbook of Federal Countries, 2002 includes articles on the twenty-one countries that classify themselves as federations as well as four whose systems incorporate sufficient elements of federalism that it is useful to include them. These articles – written by authors around the world – examine the development, institutions, constitutions, and dynamics of federalism and include tables containing current political/geographic and economic/social information. The Handbook also includes four comparative papers, each of which examines a theme of concern to federal countries: foreign policy in an era of globalization that increasingly encroaches on the jurisdiction of constituent units and demands their active participation; use of federalism to accommodate minorities; distribution of resources and power (fiscal federalism); and issues relating to regional autonomy and federalism in a European context.

This Handbook explores and explains new developments in the _second generation‘ theory of public finance, in which benevolent rulers and governments have been replaced by personally motivated politicians and the associated institutions. Following a com

This open access handbook compares fiscal federalism arrangements in eleven federal/ decentralized countries. Each chapter examines an individual country, laying out its constitutional design as relates to fiscal powers and the division of those powers between levels of government. Specifically, the analyses consider powers of taxation, spending, regulation, and more. Focusing on Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Italy, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States, the contributors provide a fascinating account of how federal countries are confronting the traditional challenges of conflicts over division of fiscal powers while also coping with the ongoing challenges of globalization and citizen empowerment that arise from the information revolution. As a companion to the Forum of Federations Handbook of Federal Countries 2020, this volume considers how relationships and roles in different orders of government are being reshaped, and shows how local solutions inspired by global principles help strengthen government accountability and improve citizens’ quality of life. This is an open access book.

This handbook evaluates the persistent problems in the fiscal systems of state and local governments and what can be done to solve them. Each chapter provides a description of the discipline area, examines major developments in policy practices and research, and opines on future prospects.

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.

State and local government fiscal systems have increasingly become vulnerable to economic changes. Over the past three decades, state and local deficits during economic recession have been larger and deeper each time. The impact of the Great Recession and its aftermath of feeble growth and lingering high unemployment has been dramatic both in scope and intensity. Before the crisis, long-term structural deficits were persistent for both individual governments and the entire sector as spending plans and patterns outpaced governments' revenue-generating capacity. The revenue systems of these governments eroded while the workloads and scope on the expenditure side of the state and local system budget continued to grow. This handbook evaluates the persistent problems in the fiscal systems of state and local governments and what can be done to solve them. It contains 35 chapters authored by 60 practitioners and academics who are renowned scholars in state and local finance. Each chapter provides a description of the discipline area, examines major developments in policy, practices and research, and opines on future prospects. The chapters are divided into four sections. Section I is a systematic discussion of the institutional, economic, and political framework that provides a background for understanding the structure and financial performance of the state and local sector. The chapters in Section II provide an overview of the various components of state and local revenue systems and how they reacted to the Great Recession. They analyze the diverse forms of taxes and charges in detail, prescribe remedies and alternatives, and examine the implications for future revenue performance. Chapters in Section III turn to spending, borrowing and financial management in the state and local sector. The focus is on the big six service delivery sectors: education, health care, human services, transportation, pensions, and housing. Section IV is a set of chapters that look ahead and speculate about how the state and local government sector's money-raising, spending, and service delivery structures will adjust to the new circumstances.

Presenting emphases on and approaches to issues such as government spending, reporting, pricing and fiscal federalism, the Handbook of Public Finance demonstrates the utility of integrating public finance theory with actual public policy practices. It discusses applications in major subfields of public finance, including public education, environmental regulation, energy policy, social welfare programs, and local and state politics. Other topics of discussion include the theory and practice of tax incidence analysis; the marginal costs of taxation and regulation, the economics of expenditure incidence, discounting and the social discount rate; passive use benefits, and public sector pricing.