Intergovernmental Transfers in Federations

Studies in Fiscal Federalism and State-local Finance series

由Serda编辑r Yilmaz, Lead Public Sector Specialist and Farah Zahir, Senior Economist, Governance Global Practice, The World Bank

Intergovernmental Transfers in Federations presents a synthesis of international experience of large federations in the most recent times in addressing the most fundamental issue of horizontal and vertical imbalances in their countries through the prism of intergovernmental transfers. Contributors delve into the various aspects of policy making as well as policy choices in selecting an efficiency path for a meaningful fiscal devolution aimed at integrating performance and incentives to reach an expenditure mix that facilitates better service delivery.

‘The edited volume Intergovernmental Transfers in Federations presents a comprehensive collection of essays introducing academics to the multifarious ways of handling vertical and horizontal fiscal imbalances in federal systems. The various contributions provide valuable insights into issues concerning intergovernmental transfers and are beneficial for everyone interested in one or more of the countries considered. The book is an outstanding scholarly account of fiscal federalism.’
– Andreas Pehr, Publius: The Journal of Federalism

‘Scholars and practitioners alike will find this comprehensive volume invaluable. The analytical framework and the accompanying country case studies provide constructive insights and lessons on how to successfully design and implement intergovernmental transfers within federal countries. Definitely a book that will help shape future central-local fiscal systems.’
– Roy Kelly, Duke University, US

‘This excellent volume brings together most of the world’s leading experts on intergovernmental fiscal relations. They provide important contributions to both the conceptual and practical literature on the design of intergovernmental transfers. Building on three insightful discussions of the principles of effective transfer design, the volume contains a dozen in-depth descriptions and critical analyses of grant systems in mature federations, evolving federations, and multi-level unitary governments. Policymakers, scholars, and students will all profit from the lessons about the design of intergovernmental transfers provided in this timely volume.’
– Andrew Reschovsky, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US

‘When it comes to designing intergovernmental transfers in a federation, there is no one model that stands above the rest. This book clearly illustrates this point with case studies from ten mature and maturing federations, written by leading scholars. Even though transfers differ across countries, there are important lessons to be learned from these case studies. For policymakers, researchers, and practitioners interested in understanding the theoretical considerations in designing transfers, what works and what does not work, and how to design a better system, this book is essential reading.’
– Enid Slack, University of Toronto, Canada