Multi-level Finance and the Euro Crisis

Edited by Ehtisham Ahmad, London School of Economics, UK, Chinese Academy of Fiscal Science and Zhejiang University, China, Massimo Bordignon, Department of Economics and Finance, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan and Giorgio Brosio, Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Turin, Italy

• Contents:Introduction: How Multilevel Finance has Contributed to the Crisis and is Affected by it? Ehtisham Ahmad, Massimo Bordignon and Giorgio BrosioPART I MANAGING SUBNATIONAL LIABILITIES IN EUROPE1. Promoting Stabilizing and Sustainable Sub-national Fiscal Policies in the Euro AreaTeresa Ter-Minassian2. Political Economy of Information Generation and Financial Management for Sub-national Governments: Some lessons from International Experience Ehtisham Ahmad3. History of the Constitutional Debt Limits in Germany and the New “Debt Brake” - Experiences and Critique: Georg MilbradtPART II INCIPIENT PROBLEMS IN THE BIGGEST COUNTRIES IN EUROPE4. Multi-level Finance and the Euro Crisis: The German ExperiencePaul Bernd Spahn5. French Subnational Public Finances: On the Difficulty of being a Decentralized Unitary State. Pierre GarelloPART III THE TROUBLED COUNTRIES OF SOUTHERN EUROPE6. Economics and Politics of Local Greek GovernmentGiorgios Chortareas and Vassileios E. Logothetis7. Portugal’s Multi-level Finance Adjustments Within the Sovereign Debt and Euro CrisesMário Fortuna8. Multi-level Finance and Governance in Spain: The Impact of the Euro CrisisSantiago Lago-Peñas and Alberto Solé Ollé9. Economic Crisis and Fiscal Federalism in ItalyMaria Flavia Ambrosanio, Paolo Balduzzi and Massimo BordignonPART IV CITIES, THE OLYMPICS AND GROWTH 10. A Tale of Two Cities: The Olympics in Barcelona and Turin Giorgio Brosio, Stefano Piperno and Javier Suarez Pandiello PART V ACCESSION STATES11. The Impact of the Global Crisis on Macedonian Local Governments.Marjan NikolovPART VI SOME GENERAL LESSONS12. Clientelistic Politics and Multi-level Finance: Some Implications for Regional Inequality and GrowthAlex Mourmouras and Peter Rangazas 13. Incentives Facing Local Governments in the Absence of Credible EnforcementLeo Fulvio Minervini and Annalisa VinellaIndex

‘Are fiscally decentralized countries inherently more unstable? Or is it a question of the design of decentralization, requiring, for example, higher sub-national revenue autonomy and hard budget constraints? The ongoing euro crisis offers an assortment of relevant country case studies to test some of those important propositions. This volume provides authoritative and insightful assessments of how decentralization and macroeconomic stability relate to each other, and significantly contributes to our understanding of multi-level finance and to improving decentralization design.’