Fiscal Federalism and State–local Finance

Edited by Jørn Rattsø, Professor of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

’Jørn Rattsø has assembled a provocative collection of papers. In describing and assessing the Scandinavian approach to local public finance, they provide a basic challenge to the conventional academic wisdom. A key role of local finance in Scandinavia is redistribution in the form of a wide array of social services that are largely financed at the central level. It is both fascinating and instructive to see how all this works and what sorts of problems and compromises are inherent in such a conception of local finance.’

• Contents: Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Style, Reform and Performance 2. Demand 3. Political Institutions 4. Cost and Control 5. Theory