Fiscal Federalism in Theory and Practice

The literature on intergovernmental fiscal relations has been expanding rapidly in recent years, in line with a growing worldwide trend toward fiscal decentralization. This book is intended to contribute to the evolving body of knowledge by providing an overview of the current thinking in the literature on these issues (the theory of fiscal federalism) and the current status of intergovernmental fiscal relations in a broad range of industrial, developing, and transition economies (thepractice of fiscal federalism). As a reflection of the IMF's focus on macroeconomic issues, the book emphasized the macroeconomic dimensions of intergovernmental fiscal relations, an area that until recently had been relatively neglected in the fiscal federalism literature