Description
Book SynopsisThis volume - the summary of a five-year research programme - describes and assesses the Scandinavian approach to local public finance. 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.
Trade Review’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.’ -- Wallace E. Oates, University of Maryland, and Resources for the Future, US
’The devolution of the financing and provision of government services has captured the interest of Scandinavian economists and political scientists. This volume provides a summary of a five-year research program to test the applicability of the US model of fiscal decentralization in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. But the book is more than the first in-depth study of federalism in Scandinavia. It also offers important general lessons for all scholars - economists, political scientists, and legal scholars alike - wishing to understand how fiscal institutions define fiscal policies’ -- Robert P. Inman, University of Pennsylvania, US
’This volume offers a wonderful addition to the Elgar series on fiscal federalism and state-local finance edited by Wallace Oates. Jorn Rattsø is a unique force in Norwegian fiscal federalism. He and his able Scandinavian colleagues have not only been frequent intellectual contributors to the academic literature, but have also been active in the policy arena as well. The volume reflects the best of both worlds. Readers not familiar with the institutions of Scandinavian public finance will of course find many valuable applications of traditional federalism principles in this volume. Along the way, they will have the opportunity to enjoy an array of intriguing analyses that will encourage fruitful reflections on comparative fiscal federalism. The volume would make a welcome addition as recommended reading on graduate public finance reading lists.’ -- Daniel L. Rubinfield, University of California, Berkeley, US
Table of ContentsContents: Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Style, Reform and Performance 2. Demand 3. Political Institutions 4. Cost and Control 5. Theory
